Sherlock Holmes play due in 2017
NEW YORK – It’s elementary, really. With all things Sherlock Holmes popular now, it’s no wonder that he’s coming to Broadway next.
Producers said a play about the cunning detective will come to Broadway in 2017. Called “Sherlock Holmes,” it will be written by the British writing team of Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel.
It is being billed as an original tale offering “a new and deeply theatrical exploration of the mind of the famous detective, while remaining faithful to the mysterious world created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.”
“Our version of Sherlock Holmes will have all the elements that fans want and expect, but with new twists and turns,” said producer Antonio R. Marion.
More details, including casting, the creative team and theater, will be announced later.
Doyle’s creation is everywhere these days: There are two TV series – “Sherlock” starring Benedict Cumberbatch and “Elementary” with Jonny Lee Miller – and Ian McKellen has been announced as an elderly Holmes in the upcoming movie “A Slight Trick of the Mind.” Robert Downey Jr. has also been playing the sleuth in a film franchise.
The last time Holmes was front-and-center on Broadway was in 1987, when Frank Langella played the detective and Donal Donnelly was Watson in “Sherlock’s Last Case” by Charles Marowitz.
Wagstaff and Abel wrote the radio drama “When I Lost You” in Britain. Wagstaff has adapted Sebastian Faulks’ bestselling novel “Birdsong” for the West End, while Abel’s first novel was “The Way Home.”