SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE ADVENTURE OF THE ELUSIVE EAR Comes to Stage West

Stage West will present the regional premiere of Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Elusive Ear, a witty riff on the classic Conan Doyle mysteries, which begins a 3-week run on Thursday, June 6. 

Life at 221-B Baker Street is a bit on the dull side at the moment.  The most recent of the great Sherlock Holmes’s cases have been too pedestrian to provide Dr. Watson with material for another of his popular stories.  Prospects for some healthy income don’t seem too promising until, unexpectedly, a man arrives with a bloody bandage wrapped around his head.  His name is Vincent Van Gogh, as it happens, and he has lost something, well, rather important to him. His arrival is followed shortly by another—a young woman is seeking to solve the murder of her father.  But the as-yet-undiscovered Van Gogh is too poor to pay Holmes’s fee, and the young woman is not at all who she seems. A rollercoaster of a mystery is soon underway, with Holmes, his paramour Irene Adler, and Watson on the case!

It’s an evening full of twists and turns, including a surprise appearance by Oscar Wilde, and is sure to be hugely entertaining for all audiences!

Associate Producer Garret Storms says, “The first in a trilogy that we will be producing over the next three seasons, these plays are not your typical Holmes stories – they are zany and incredibly charming.”

“An expertly crafted, utterly intelligent, and yet purely delightful escape…thoughtful, artful entertainment full of imagination and intrigue”

— Encore Michigan

David MacGregor was born in Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Michigan State University.  He is a Resident Artist at The Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea, MI, where he has had nine productions: The Late Great Henry Boyle (2006), Vino Veritas (2008), Gravity (2010), 

Consider the Oyster (2011), Just Desserts (2014), Vino Veritas (2017), Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Elusive Ear (2018), Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Fallen Soufflé (2019), and Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Ghost Machine (2022). His newest play, The Antichrist Cometh, premiered at The Purple Rose Theatre in March 2024.  His holiday comedy, Scrooge Macbeth premiered at Theatre B in Fargo, ND in 2013.​ His plays have been performed from New York to Tasmania, and his work has been published by Dramatic Publishing, Playscripts, Smith & Kraus, Applause, Heuer Publishing, and Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW).​ In 2013, he adapted his play Vino Veritas into a film, which stars Carrie Preston and Bernard White.​ His screenplay In the Land of Fire & Ice was a 2016 Athena Award winner (best screenplay featuring a female protagonist), and is currently under option with Academy Award nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo attached as the lead. Several of his short plays have also been adapted into films (e.g., Just Desserts, New Year’s Eve, and The Trouble With Cashews).  Easy Way Out, the film based on his play For Old Time’s Sake, stars Academy Award nominee John Savage.​ Most recently, he has adapted all three of his Sherlock Holmes plays into novels, which have been published by MX Publishing, as is his nonfiction book, Sherlock Holmes: The Hero With a Thousand Faces.​ He has had his writing publicly burned, has been hung in effigy, and once upon a time, was ranked one of the top hundred Scrabble players on the planet.

Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Elusive Ear will be directed by Amphibian Stage’s 

Co-Artistic Director Jay Duffer. The cast features John-Michael Marrs, seen last season in Grand Horizons, as Holmes, with Brian Gonzales, noted for his Broadway roles in Mr. Saturday Night and Aladdin, making his Stage West debut, as Watson. Joining them are Stage West Executive Producer Dana Schultes, just seen in POTUS: or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, as Holmes’ lady friend Irene Adler, Kelsey Milbourn, last seen in the title role in Ada and the Engine, as Marie Chartier, Mitch Stephens, last at Stage West in the Prism Movement Company’s Everything Will Be Fine, as Vincent Van Gogh, and Philip Matthew Maxwell, who also appeared in Grand Horizons, as Oscar Wilde.

Set design is by Clare Floyd DeVries, with lighting design by Tristan Decker, costume design by Laurie Land, sound design by Jason Jordan, intimacy coordination and choreography by Kelsey Milbourn, fight choreography by Mitch Stephens, dialect coaching by Megan Noble, and props and set décor by Lynn Lovett.  Stage Manager duties will be handled by Kaitlin Hatton.

Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Elusive Ear will preview Thursday, June 6 at 7:30 and Friday, June 7 at 8:00, and will run through Sunday, June 23.  The opening night reception will be after the evening performance on Saturday, June 8.  The ASL interpreted performance will be Thursday, June 20.  Post-show conversations with be following the performances on June 9 (matinee) with director Jay Duffer and June 15 (evening) with playwright David MacGregor. Performances will be Thursdays at 7:30, Fridays at 8:00, Saturdays at 2:00 and 8:00, and Sundays at 2:00 and 7:30.  Ticket prices for this show are $43 on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sunday evenings, and $47 on Saturdays and Sundays, with $38 tickets for the two preview performances.  Food service is available 90 minutes prior to performances (reservations are advised).  Reservations and information are available through the Box Office (817-784-9378), or on the website, www.stagewest.org.  

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