It’s two classic stories mashed into one, creating a comedy murder mystery, a whodunit to deck the morgue and fireplace mantle during the holiday season.
There’s the sophisticated and intelligent Victorian-era gumshoe, better known as Sherlock Holmes (as perhaps Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never imagined him), who’s tracking down the nogoodnik who killed Ebenezer Scrooge.
At the same time, you’ll likely hear Holmes utter “Bah!” to Watson and sound a lot like a character in a well-known Dickens tale, because, well, it’s not the same “A Christmas Carol” in playwright Mark Shanahan’s “A Sherlock Carol.”
But it is a blend of the two stories, a synthesized yuletide detective story that also reportedly includes a stuffed goose, unfolding at Vallejo’s Bay Area Stage theater space, beginning Friday and continuing weekends to Dec. 17.
Whether one is a “A Christmas Carol” fan or a Holmes buff, they will recognize both stories’ characters and situations in this “clever, fun holiday comedy, that happens also to be a murder mystery,” Stacey Loew, a company co-founder who plays Mrs. Windigate and directs the all-ages show, noted in a press statement.
It is Christmas Eve 1894, and a depressed Sherlock Holmes broods over the death of his nemesis, Moriarty, and his consequently purposeless life.
That is – according to Lowe – until a grown-up Dr. Timothy Cratchit convinces him to discover Scrooge’s killer. She added two more characters to the author’s outlined six, who are intended to play multiple roles because they are, after all, merely spirits.
“Moriarty has died, so Sherlock is depressed,” and comes out of retirement, she said in an earlier interview. No surprise, The Ghost of Christmas Past is Scrooge, she added.
In the interview, it was clear Loew and fellow co-founder Jeff Lowe take their work, but not themselves, seriously, quipping that they produce plays and musicals “on Broadway … in Vallejo. We’re Broadway producers.”
And don’t be surprised if this latest BAS production, speeding past Christmases past, present and future, includes some carol signing and plenty of goodwill for all.
The cast includes Christopher Fabbro Smith as Sherlock Holmes; Jeff Lowe as Ebenezer Scrooge; Jeff Servente as Dr. Timothy Cratchit and in the ensemble; Matt Cardigan-Smith as Dr. Watson, Mrs. Dilber, Henry Burke, Old Joe Brackenridge and in the ensemble; Siobhan O’Brien as Countess of Morcar, Martha Cratchit, Mary Morstan, Abigail “Abby” Fezziwig and in the ensemble.
Maya Edwards is Fan “Fannie” Gardner and in the ensemble; Kati Grilley is Emma Wiggins and in the ensemble; Hunter Rose is Ralph Fezziwig and in the ensemble; Eric Bates is Mr. Topper, Constable Bradstreet and in the ensemble; and Stacey Loew is Mrs. Windigate and in the ensemble.