Vicki Paris Goodman
Culture Writer
The thought of there being a final adventure for the standard bearer of private eyes is unthinkable. Retirement for Sherlock Holmes? Somehow such a human endeavor as planning the end to one’s career seems too conventional for an immortal like Holmes. Does a legend retire?
Yet in 1899 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the Sherlock Holmes character and author of the immensely popular mystery novels featuring the brilliant detective, teamed up with co-author William Gillette to write the stage play that would bring the suspense series to a fitting close. Steven Dietz has adapted the work for the modern stage. James Rice directs the Long Beach Playhouse production.
So with hands figuratively planted over my eyes and ears (yes, I was in denial), I took my seat in the Playhouse’s Mainstage theater and prepared for the end.
But what transpired was more spoof than true Holmes. It seemed a parody of what a final episode might look like— sort of a “what if” with a bold sense of humor. Good. I could relax and enjoy this without suffering a loss.
In Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, an aging, cocaine-addicted, but sharp-as-ever Holmes (Noah Wagner) summons his famous cohort Dr. Watson (Stephen Alan Carver) to help him seek out and finally destroy Holmes’s age-old nemesis, Professor Moriarty (Don Schlossman). (I suppose Holmes couldn’t justify sitting home working crosswords with Moriarty still on the loose.)
But before the two men can put Holmes’s plan in motion, they receive an unwelcome visit from a rather high-strung and supremely agitated King of Bohemia (Skip Blas). His royal highness has his knickers in a twist worrying over his upcoming nuptials to a European princess whom he fears will see a photo depicting him with the famous and beautiful opera singer, Irene Adler (Tiffany Toner).
Throwing a bone to Holmes fans who’d held on to the notion of a love interest for the committedly uninvolved detective, the writers have here designated Adler the apple of Holmes’s “private” eye. Where Wagner and Toner don’t exactly ignite, they produce a few sparks of mild admiration. Oh, well.
Wagner is an attractive enough Holmes. If only he hadn’t rushed so many of his lines that some were unintelligible. Carver’s Watson does a better job with vocal pace and clarity, and thus produces a more believable character.
By the time Holmes and Watson catch up with Moriarty, played with demonic conviction by Schlossman, Adler is married to Moriarty’s accomplice James Larrabee, but is she really?
In a spoof, even genius can be exaggerated. And Holmes’s anticipation of every impossibly unpredictable eventuality is showcased here to the point of absurdity. But the absurd can be fun, so why not?
Moriarty’s team includes a rather colorful cast of characters, including James’s sister Madge (Judy Gish), whose delicious cackle brings to mind Oz’s wicked witch of the west, and Sid Prince (James Velasquez), ace safecracker and an apparent refugee of the streets of some New Jersey suburb.
Blas’s Bohemian king is arguably the hit of the show. Playhouse regular Blas always summons maximal entertainment value out of the characters he portrays.
In the end, Holmes and Moriarty stage their final showdown unwitnessed at the top of a mighty waterfall. Does either survive? I’d be remiss if I gave that away.
Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure continues on the Long Beach Playhouse Mainstage through March 24. General-admission tickets are $24; $21 for seniors. Student tickets are $14 with valid student ID. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, with Sunday matinees at 2pm. The Long Beach Playhouse is located at 5021 E. Anaheim St. Call (562) 494-1014 for reservations and information. Tickets are also available online at lbplayhouse.org.
