Sherlock Holmes,
the "world's first consulting detective," makes periodic
forays into popular culture. There was, of course, Basil Rathbone
and all those movies of the 1930s and '40s. The '70s and '80s brought
a spate of films that lifted Arthur Conan Doyle's characters out
of context and into stories of their own: "The Seven Percent
Solution," "Young Sherlock Holmes," and Billy Wilder's
underrated "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes," a film
that might have been called "The Private Life of Billy Wilder,"
so filled it was with references to the director's own personal
life.
Though things at 221b Baker Street have been quiet for the last
couple decades, Arizona may be the start of yet another Holmes revival.
Arizona Theatre Company's "Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure"
harkens back to the first time Holmes, Watson and company ventured
forth from the pages of books onto a public stage. It was 1899 when
Doyle and actor William Gillette collaborated on the script that
playwright Steven Dietz and director David Ira Goldstein have used
as the basis of their adaptation, opening March 30 at the Herberger
Theater in downtown Phoenix.
"Why do Sherlock Holmes again?" Goldstein asks rhetorically.
"Why do another Beethoven's Fifth or another 'Swan Lake?' Holmes
is one of those great stories, it's fun to revisit."
The public resoundingly agrees. The play's run in Tucson sold more
tickets than any of the season's earlier offerings, and we're talking
about a season that saw a 50 percent rise in single ticket sales
over last year. The buzz is so great around the musty old guy in
the deerstalker cap that nine U.S. theater companies have already
committed to producing this ATC original next season alone. After
that, might we not deduce that a film adaptation is the next logical
step?
Goldstein asked Dietz to stick close to the original, yet changes
of tone, language and other considerations mean that 95 percent
of the play is new, according to Goldstein. The story is still there,
and the characters, including the dark Professor Moriarty, have
not been revised or modernized.
Another change was the size of the cast. In 1899, it was common
to call for 24 actors. Dietz and Goldstein have gotten their production
down to a more manageable (by contemporary budget standards) ten
actors.
In Goldstein's 15 years as the company's artistic director, ATC
has never before done a mystery.
"It seemed to me that, if we were going to do a mystery, we
should go for the first one," Goldstein says.
Of course. It's elementary.
For information on tickets and time for "Sherlock Holmes: The
Final Adventure," call (602) 256 6995 or log on to www.aztheatreco.org.
The Doc is in (the house)
Doc Severinsen suffers from the image of being the flashiest musician
alive. I say "suffers" with some reservation, since the
erstwhile bandleader for the old Johnny Carson "Tonight Show"
cultivates the image. Think of Doc, and it's impossible not to picture
him in the brightest, most colorful jacket imaginable. Probably
with sequins.
But in 15 years of going to Phoenix Symphony pops concerts led by
Severinsen, I've come to realize that the flash covers a lot of
musical substance. There was the concert a couple years back that
featured some of Doc's solo trumpet takes on Italian opera arias.
The program concluded with "Nessun dorma" from "Turandot,"
one of those Puccini arias that starts out calm and low and ends
up in the stratosphere.
Doc didn't transpose the aria down to make it easier on himself.
He played it like a fine tenor would sing it: ruminative at the
start, expansive later on. When he hit the high 'D' above high 'C'
at the very end, you thought, "Well, that was fine!" Then,
incredibly, he repeated the feat, playing another high 'D' even
clearer and more bell like than the first.
Doc concludes his 22 years as PSO Principal Pops Conductor with
a concert Friday, March 31 at Phoenix Symphony Hall. He'll lead
the orchestra in some of the hits that were around in the '70s,
near the start of his "Tonight Show" fame. For information
on tickets and times, call (602) 495 1999 or log on to www.phoenixsymphony.org.
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