A stage version of a perennially popular story will open soon in Issaquah.
“Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery” is a reworking of the classic novel about Holmes’s most famous case, “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” The story is familiar to almost everyone: the heir to the Baskerville fortune is threatened by the legendary hound. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson travel to Dartmoor to solve the mystery. The story has been adapted for stage, screen, and television over 30 times.
Ken Ludwig’s version is a comedic retelling of the story, in which five intrepid actors play over 40 roles. Two of the actors play one role each, of course, Holmes and Watson, leaving the other three to tackle all the remaining characters.
Ken Ludwig has a long and distinguished career in the theater. “Baskerville” is only one of the adaptations he has done of popular works. Others include “Moriarty: A New Sherlock Holmes Adventure,” and “The Game’s Afoot,” about William Gillette, the first actor to play Holmes.
Ludwig’s first major hit was “Lend Me a Tenor,” which Andrew Lloyd Webber produced for London’s West End in 1986 and Broadway in 1989. The comedy won two Tonys out of seven nominations, and a 2010 revival of the play won three more Tony nominations. Ludwig has had three plays on Broadway.
“Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery” opens on January 20 at the Village Theatre in Issaquah. Productions like this can be supported using advertisements created with poster printing.
