Review: Rep's SHERLOCK HOLMES Lacks Some Grace But It's Still Holmes

Back in 2013 the Seattle Rep gave us a lovely Christmas Present with R. Hamilton Wright and David Pichette's wonderful adaptation of "The Hound of the Baskervilles". So when they announced that they would be ending this season with more Holmes from Wright with "Sherlock Holmes and the American Problem", naturally there was a lot of excitement and anticipation for more from this team. And while the team is still on point and while it's still more Sherlock goodness, this original Holmes mystery from Wright doesn't quite have the elegance and grace of a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle piece.

In this new mystery it's chaos as usual for our heroes. Sherlock (Darragh Kennan) is still befuddled by society especially now that the streets of London are overrun with tourists, particularly Americans, here to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee. Watson (Andrew McGinn) is still trailing after Sherlock hoping for excitement. And Mrs. Hudson (Marianne Owen) is still tidying up for the boys and trying to get them to eat. Enter two American women with seemingly unconnected cases with Miss Phoebe Anne Moses (Christine Marie Brown) looking for her brother and Miss Charlotte Lichter (Cheyenne Casebier) looking for her stolen scientific equipment. But when Sherlock's older brother Mycroft (Charles Leggett) arrives with his own issues the pieces begin to fall into place for a very dangerous game.

I won't say anymore about the story so as not to give anything away but I will talk about its structure. The fun of a Holmes story, for me at least, has always been how the pieces unfold so gracefully without you even noticing it's happening until finally Holmes lays it all out for us in a grand speech moments before we would get it ourselves. And while pieces did unfold, the ease and grace of said pieces just wasn't there. And the speech was made as a kind of an afterthought after all the action was done. It's so much more fun and exciting when that happens within the action. So while all our favorite characters were there in Wright's new story, it was just missing that Doyle pacing and that left me a bit wanting.

The ensemble is, of course, superb. Kennan delivers just enough quirks and moments where he allows us to see his damage in the midst of his genius that we completely feel for and admire the great detective. But those quirks never get in the way of the story or the character. McGinn is once again a delight as the excitable Dr. Watson especially in the moments where he was fawning over a certain lady sharpshooter. And of course there's the sheer joy of Owen with her side-glances as she takes care of these two big children. Brown brings a ballsy assuredness to the mysterious client and Alex Matthews as her Pinkerton bodyguard lent a wonderfully brisk and frustrated air to the duo. In fact they were so fun I wonder if Wright might want to have them as the focus of another piece. Casebier and Tim Gouran both bring in multiple characters into the piece including some delectably devious bad guys. Rob Burgess slays as the bumbling military professor. And Leggett only has a few scenes as Mycroft but you can feel the years of sibling animosity between the two geniuses trying to one up each other.

Once again L.B. Morse is on hand for a technical dream of a set complete with some stunning background projections that turned the opening scene into a sort of living movie. You'll just have to see it to understand what I mean and I do recommend you see it. Wright's script may not have the same zing as a Doyle story but it's still fun and filled with clever twists and turns. And really, a mediocre Holmes is better than much else out there and so I give the Rep's "Sherlock Holmes and the American Problem" a thoroughly enjoyed YAY-. But next time maybe we stick with an existing Holmes story. There are still plenty out there.

"Sherlock Holmes and the American Problem" performs at the Seattle Rep through May 22nd. For tickets or information contact the Seattle Rep box office at 206-443-2222 or visit them online at www.seattlerep.org.

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