Promo photo for The Game's Afoot, world-premiering at the Cleveland Play House later this month.
Connecticut's own William Gillette, at home (if not at Holmes).
The Cleveland Play House calls itself “America’s first professional regional theatre,” (begging the churlish question “What’s a professional region?!”). Their next production, The Game’s Afoot (or Holmes for the Holidays) is a world premiere with a Connecticut connection.
The title’s no mystery—this is a Sherlock Holmes caper set during Christmastime. Can a more commercial regional theater project be found? Yes, of course it can—the umpteenth adaptation of A Christmas Carol, and Cleveland is to commended for not attempting that. Instead, they’re debuting a new old-fashioned work by American farceur Ken Ludwig.
It was Ludwig who put the sass back in Gershwin with his book for Crazy for You. He wrote two comedies that have balanced and salvaged untold summer stock seasons: Lend Me a Tenor and Moon Over Buffalo. His work has played as well on Broadway as it has in the provinces.
‘Round these parts (New Haven, Connecticut), Ludwig is known for the musical The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which had a lavish pre-Broadway try-out at the Shubert Theater in 2001. It lasted less than two dozen proper performances in New York and (despite some obvious second-act problems) deserved better, and got a much nicer reception here in the state where Twain resided.
That’s not the Connecticut connection I’m talking about re Cleveland, however. The Game’s Afoot concerns not the fictional Sherlock Holmes but the actor who famously embodied the character onstage for over 30 years, William Gillette. Born on a farm in Hartford in 1853, Gillette continued to reside in the state even after achieving international fame—in a castle that’s become a major Connecticut tourist attraction.
Gillette Castle is a stone’s throw (or rather a stone’s skip along the river) from the Goodspeed Opera House. It’s also not far from the Ivoryton Playhouse, where the summer stock River Rep troupe performed the Gillette version of Sherlock Holmes (with Stephen Kunken, recently Tony-nominated for Enron, as Holmes) in 2003.
Here’s the Cleveland Play House promo synopsis of The Game’s Afoot:
We meet famed stage actor William Gillette at his Connecticut castle, recovering from an attempt on his life following a performance of his renowned play, Sherlock Holmes. It’s Christmas Eve, and much to his mother Martha’s chagrin, William invites fellow actors, Aggie & Simon and Felix & Madge, over for the holiday weekend. His elaborate home, filled with gadgets and hidden passageways, becomes the setting for a murder, and Gillette must use the Sherlock Holmes crime-solving skills he made famous on stage to catch the culprit. Will Gillette uncover the secrets his guests are hiding? Will he discover who the murderer is before he/she claims another victim? Will his guests ever be able to drink eggnog again?
The play, directed by Aaron Posner, plays the Play House Nov. 25 through Dec. 18.
Which will be the first theater in Connecticut to stage it?