AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO SUPPORT THE ARTS, and especially any well-regarded play in Canada that also appeals to Holmes fans. At the Diesel Playhouse is running an award-winning play called Antoine Feval:

Meet Barnaby Gibbs: an incurable optimist, Sherlock Holmes fan, and a man who knows he’s not particularly good at anything. One night, while checking on a friend’s empty house, he encounters a stranger, dressed entirely in black, holding a bag full of stolen belongings and attempting to write a poem about sapphires. There is only one conclusion a reasonable man could come to: this is the notorious cat burglar / con-man known as the Rhyming Bandit! However, Barnaby is not a reasonable man, and when the stranger explains he is actually the famous detective Antoine Feval, a new crime-fighting duo is born.

The comedy is running in Toronto from the 15th to the 25th of this month. More information is available at the Diesel Playhouse. Next up are runs in New Zealand and New Mexico.

HEAR this is what every fashionable Sherlockian is wearing this year.

MUST admit that I’ve never been a big fan of musicals. Indeed, the closest I got to enjoying one was Camelot, and that was only because of a long-standing interest in all matters Arthurian. However, I still tote around this soundtrack on my iPod, and have been known to spontaneously break into song and dance at the local strip mall with my rousing rendition of “The Lusty Month of May”, backed by a chorus of frolicsome maidens dancing gaily with flowers in their hair.

Hmm. Or I might have dreamt that.

Ah, my point jabs at me expectantly. I’ve lately received the original 1965 Broadway cast recording of the Sherlockian musical, Baker Street. I’ve listened to it a few times now, intent on writing some sort of short review, but it’s very difficult to appreciate the album without any sort of proper context: I have little idea of the storylines, and the songs give away very few clues as to what they might be. Or perhaps I’m just too bored to notice them. The tracks seem to alternate between syrupy love songs and uninspired group numbers with forced melodies and very few hooks to catch the infernal jukebox in my head.

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UCH of what the general public regards as the archetypal image of Sherlock Holmes is due to William Gillette, who personified Holmes for many years in his stage play (named, appropriately enough, “Sherlock Holmes”):

Possibly best known in his day for embodying the celebrated character of Sherlock Holmes, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (with whom the actor also became a close personal friend), Gillette imposed his cachet forever on the character’s stereotype: deerstalker cap, cloak, curved pipe and the phrase: “Oh, this is elementary, my dear Watson.” [Wikipedia]

I’ve always loved the posters I’ve seen for the production, but one in particular is a favourite — the one reproduced below.

I’ve never really found a good reproduction of this poster. The closest I’ve found, I’ve scanned from the wonderful book The Life & Times of Sherlock Holmes by Philip Weller with Christopher Rodin, and then cleaned it up quite a bit in Photoshop.

As a little thank-you to all the readers who have visited my modest site, and the dozens who are sending me so many fascinating materials and links, I thought I’d offer it as a small printable poster. Note that the graphic is not perfect, due mostly to the original source, but it’s significantly better than any other version I’ve seen yet. It should blow up to 8×10 inches without any significant deterioration in quality, and if you bring it to your local Kodak kiosk, you should be able to have it print off a beautiful glossy version worthy of framing. You may have to adjust the brightness and contrast at the machine, so be sure to preview it. (Note that this is intended for personal use only, not for commercial purposes.)

Download: Frohman_Gillette_Lyceum.jpg [1.1 Mb] — Right-click in your browser on the link, and click “Save file (or target) as…”.

If anyone is interested, I can provide a similar download for the other popular Gillette poster later.

ART of the fun of being an educator is exploring new ways of approaching a subject. While teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to pupils in France, I was personally known to leap atop desks to recite Shakespeare, conduct a square dance, and lead a sing-song taken from the score to Camelot. (All of which is somewhat ironic, given that I’m tone-deaf and look rather odd in tights.) However, if I taught elementary school math, I now know one tack I’d certainly take….

Students in Susan Hoffman’s sixth-grade class at Jacks Valley Elementary School got a math lesson Tuesday afternoon that they’re possibly not soon to forget. After all, the lessons the elementary school students were learning were … “elementary.”

“Mastering Math - A Sherlock Holmes Problem Solving Mystery” is a musical play, featuring several musical numbers including, He’s Mastering Math, I Just Want to Solve a Mystery, Guess and Check, Work Backwards, Draw a Table, Act It Out, A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words, Find a Pattern and Four Steps.

Read the full story at the Record-Courier. Educators looking to order the play/CD package or sample the songs can find it at Bad Wolf Press.

rom AZStarNet.com comes an article entitled It’s a new hunt, Sherlock, concerning a new stage play being performed in Tucson called Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure:

Steven Dietz is a liar. He freely admits it. Whether the playwright is adapting Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” P.G. Wodehouse’s “Over the Moon” or one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, he lies.

“That’s my job,” said Dietz in a phone interview from his Seattle home.

“My job is to lie to you and make you believe” the words spoken were written by Stoker, or Wodehouse or Doyle. He doesn’t want you to suspect for a moment that they are Dietz’s words.

Dietz has penned “Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure.” Arizona Theatre Company’s world premiere of the play opens in previews Saturday. The script is full of the lush language Doyle used for his smart detective and loyal sidekick, Dr. Watson.

Quite a favourable review can also be found at the Arizona Daily Star — ATC’s Holmes tale a fine adventure indeed — although a not-so-public review from a fellow Sherlockian was… erm… somewhat less enthusiastic. Being on the other side of the continent, I have no opinion that actually matters. Have any readers here seen this performance? If so, what did you think?