BWW Reviews: BAKER STREET IRREGULARS Steals Audience's Hearts at First Stage Premiere

How will London be kept safe from crime?---When the illustrious Sherlock Holmes disappears from his daily routine of capturing public enemies in Victorian England, the city wonders if he really was murdered as the death rumor persists. In the First Stage World Premiere production Sherlock Holmes: The Baker Street Irregulars, the famous sleuth mysteriously shows his face during several sneak appearances in the evening to open the theater company's 28th season and prove Sherlock Holmes rises from the rumors alive and well.

Playwright Eric Coble's adaptation based first on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous stories, or specifically from Tony Lee's graphic novel accompanied by Dan Boultwood's illustrations, has the "Baker Street Irregulars" or Holmes's famous street urchins---Wiggins, Pockets, Ash, Tiny and Chen---storm the Todd Wehr Theater stage. The motley five courageously demonstrate their bravado when they assume Sherlock's incomparable sleuthing skills. And in this performance, also steal the audience's hearts when solving their own crimes.

This cast, the "Holmes" cast on opening night, speaks with believable cockney accents and accomplishes the face-paced, fun sequences the performance demands from all the actors. Coble's adaptation under Jeff Frank's tight direction moves quickly through numerous scenes happening throughout London's backstreets, similar to the series of frames printed for the graphic novel or scrolled on an IPad, amid Brandon KIrkham's inventive scenic design. Places envisioned in grand theatrical style where Wiggins and a masked man fight atop a moving train car or Ash climbs a chimney to slide down when she breaks and enters a hideout.

Music smoothes these numerous transitions from scene to scene, and remains a luxurious necessity in this production. Music Director John Nicholson orchestrated his original score by placing four young performer musicians on a platform above the shadowed and sooty London streets. His haunting melodies heighten the audience's emotions to where they need to be, amid the stage action of the Baker Street Irregulars, who attempt to prove they are worthy of the trust Sherlock Holmes originally placed in them.

Wiggins leads the Irregulars, and a lanky Max Pink relishes his role when playing Wiggins, giving the character a winning personality, which becomes a fitting counterpoint for the plucky Pockets, a delightful Elizabeth Robbins. The scruffy little girl Ash, a memorable Eloise Field, steals scenes with her spitfire personality. All the Irregulars, especially Ash, give London Police Captain Lestrade plenty to complain about while Tiny, a very tall Maxwell Zupke and Chen, Matthias Wong, complete this unruly quintet. Except when the persuasive Eliza, a lovely Katherine Pollnow, arrives with a request for the Irregulars to find her kidnapped grandfather, which begins the first case in the play.

Perhaps the most poignant moments appear when the Irregulars remember their families, who might be notorious criminals, or as with Ash, unknown when she was left alone on the streets. Called "gutter scum" by London society, these five youths band together to form their unique family. When Ash sighs she lost hers, or they confront their darker pasts handed down from their parents, Tiny names these feelings filled with chagrin when he replies, "You can't lose something you never had. Better to have no family than bad family."

Wiggins accepts he has bad family, a father supposedly sentenced to prison, and needs to change people's opinions that he will be like his father, another criminal. "I'm not my father," he tells the Police Chief, Dr. Watson, and Mrs. Hudson, to insist his new "family," the Irregulars, will live up to the confidence Sherlock Holmes placed in them. "It's where we go and who we are [now] that matters...and while I can't choose my father, I can choose the man I become."

These themes invoke the heart of this production. A reminder anyone can rise above their backgrounds and past, especially when someone else respectable also respects and trusts them. When merely one solitary person believes they are worthy instead of uncouth, irregular youths. Coble mentioned when he writes his plays, and he has more than 60 to his name over his career, he enjoys placing these adult themes in theater for young audiences, and when writing for adults, he places youthful wonder to entice an adult's imagination.

His Sherlock Holmes: Baker Street Irregulars incorporates both playwriting goals in what he names "a rollicking show," to give each character in the play, each Irregular, "a shining moment on stage," where the audience wonders how each mystery will be solved. While the production centers these family relationships forged between the Irregulars, a twist eventually reveals a complex father-son tug of emotions that further develops the action. To embody the play's multiple characters surrounding the six youths, an accomplished First Stage adult cast includes Mark Corkins, Todd Denning, Marcella Kearns and Chiké Johnson, adding depth to the production.

At times, the audience wishes more stage time could be given to these fascinating characters and their moments from iconic literary fiction. While Coble adapted three graphic novels for this particular World Premiere, more amazing would be giving focused time to one or two stories, or creating another entire play? Another mystery Coble and First Stage could unravel together in the future. Although in the meantime, have one's heart stolen again by this enchanting cast bringing Sherlock Holmes: The Baker Street Irregulars to enthralling life "when the game's always afoot." Applaud the production's message: "forgotten" children can find a home, be considered worthy, and then succeed when somebody believes in them. Believe.

First Stage presents the world premiere Sherlock Holmes: The Baker Street Irregulars in the Todd Wehr Theater at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts through November 15. Sherlock Holmes hats fashioned in a black and white houndstooth plaid can be purchased in the lobby to support First Stage Theater Academy scholarships. For further information or tickets, please call 414.273.7206 or www.firststage.org

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