Sherlock Holmes: The Musical
Sherlock Holmes: The Musical is a musical based on characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, with music, lyrics, and book by Leslie Bricusse. The story concerns a 1901 confrontation between Holmes and his arch-enemy Professor Moriarty; Moriarty's brilliant daughter Bella proves to be an even more determined (and beautiful) foe than her father. The musical opened 22 October 1988 at the Northcott Theatre, in Exeter, England, and ran for a limited season of five weeks. It then played at the Cambridge Theatre on Seven Dials in London's Covent Garden area from 24 April to 8 July 1989. During this time there were public transit strikes that Ron Moody worked into the script through ad-libs. A revival tour (in a slightly revised version) opened at the Bristol Old Vic on 16 March 1993 with Robert Powell in the title role, Roy Barraclough as Watson, and Louise English as Bella Spellgrove. In April 2013 Leslie Bricusse worked with the Morphic Graffiti theatre company to revise and revamp the show within a Victorian Music Hall setting at Hoxton Hall in London, which itself is a 145-year-old grade II listed Music Hall Theatre. Now called The Revenge of Sherlock Holmes, the revised version included new never previously performed material, and opened to critical acclaim. Among the numerous adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, the Bricusse score was preceded by at least two other Holmes musicals: Baker Street in 1965 and Ein Fall für Sherlock Holmes in 1982. Plot The play opens after Professor Moriarty's death and Sherlock Holmes' miraculous return to life. As Dr. Watson and Mrs. Hudson describe the many eccentricities on their friend ("Sherlock Holmes"), we find that Holmes is, to Watson's disbelief, missing Moriarty. ("Without Him There Can Be No Me"). Holmes is quickly assured that there is plenty of work left for him in London ("Anything You Want To Know") ("London is London"), and he is temporarily reassured. But a meeting with the Beautiful Bella Spellgrove (the daughter of Professor Moriarty). Watson, though married, is immediately taken with her beauty ("Her Face"). Though Holmes is not as immediately smitten, he is drawn into a battle of wits of sort when Bella accuses him of hiding behind Watson's 'loveable moose' so that he can feel better about himself ("Men Like You"), which she claims as a great annoyance to women of her intelligence. We then see Mrs. Hudson lamenting the hardships in her own life, as a widow forced to rent rooms to lodgers to make ends meet ("A Lousy Life"). Act Two opens with a desperate search for Bella, as Holmes is afraid that by losing her he loses the last link to Moriarty, a connection he still misses terribly ("I Shall Find Her"). But, unbeknownst to Holmes, Bella and her mother, Mrs. Moriarty (who was a trained Italian opera singer before her marriage) are plotting to bring 'death and disgrace' to Holmes as revenge for killing Professor Moriarty ("Vendetta"). Bella is successfully able to frame Holmes for murder when he