Lyric Rep Brings New Sherlock Holmes Comedy to Logan

Utah State University’s Lyric Repertory Company brings audiences Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, a comic retelling of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles. The play opens June 16 at the historic Caine Lyric Theatre in downtown Logan and continues June 17 and 18 then on select dates through Aug. 6.

“It’s a zany, romp of a play,” Jason Spelbring, Caine College of the Arts professor and the play’s director, said. “The funny moments are really funny, but the more intense moments are very suspenseful and terrifying. It’s a lovely combination of trying to balance the absolute slapstick hilarity with a terrifying murder-mystery.”

The plotline finds Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson investigating the death of Sir Charles Baskerville, whose body was discovered on the grounds of his estate. Playwright Ken Ludwig, who brought Lend Me a Tenor and Moon Over Buffalo to the stage, puts his farcical spin on this classic mystery.

“A lot of people aren’t familiar with this play, but are familiar with Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson,” Spelbring said. “Walking into this experience, they’ll have a leg up on what to expect because all the iconic things about Sherlock and Watson are present in this play, it’s just told differently. ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ is a popular novel and the play incorporates all the elements of the novel with a twist.”

In the show, there are two principal actors and three ensemble members. Between them, the three ensemble members portray 40 characters.

“Along with dialect and amazing costumes designed by Russel Terwelp, it’s my job to make it clear to the audience which character the actors are portraying at any given moment,” Spelbring said. “The actors use physicality to create the appearance of different characters. Literally within the turn of a head they could be someone else. Making sure there are consistencies — and differences — throughout will help the audience experience a clear story.”

The Lyric Rep production uses sound and projection designs to create many different settings in the play. Spelbring loves that the Lyric Rep is a professional theater company that has the ability to embrace the technology. The physical set is a street in London with five platforms that are up to 13 ft. tall and painted in a forced perspective style, a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is.

The cast for Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery includes Sean Peters (Sherlock Holmes), Cameron Blankenship (Doctor Watson), Shannon Leigh Peters (Actress), W. Lee Daily (Actor One) and Richie Call (Actor Two).

Opening June 16, Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery runs on select dates through Aug. 6 in repertory with Arsenic and Old Lace, Singin’ in the Rain and You Can’t Take it With You.

Audiences should note that the 2016 matinee performances at the Lyric Rep begin at 1 p.m. to allow set changeovers for a different evening production. The summer’s first matinee is a June 18 performance of “Baskerville.”

For more information and tickets, call 435-797-8022, see the company’s website or visit the Caine Lyric Theatre Box Office in downtown Logan at 28 West Center Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., and one hour prior to curtain on matinee dates and show nights.

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Writer and contact: Whitney Schulte, 435-797-9203, whitney.schulte@usu.edu