Playwright Kate Hamill likes to take classic novels and upend them for the stage.
She’s done it with a trio of Jane Austen masterpieces, adding nuance to the sisterhood of “Sense and Sensibility,” some additional comedy to the one-line zingers of “Pride and Prejudice,” and ramping up the eccentricities of “Emma,” which she set against the backdrop of contemporary themes.
In 2022 she aimed her imagination at Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes.”
From left, Regina Fernandez, Aaron Cammack and Kelen Coleman rehearse a scene from Arizona Theatre Company’s production of “Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B,” which opens on Sunday, May 18.
Hamill reimagines the crusty detective and his sidekick Dr. Watson as women in “Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson — Apt. 2B,” which Arizona Theatre Company is bringing to the Temple of Music and Art stage from Sunday, May 18 to June 7. The show, closes out ATC’s season.
Here are a few things to know before you go:
The story
Joan Watson is an American divorcee making her way across Europe when she finds herself renting a room from Ms. Holmes, a police consultant whose profession and propensity to solve mysteries has her a little frazzled.
The unlikely gal-pals team up to solve a number of violent crimes committed by notorious villains.
Playwright Hamill borrows a bit of Doyle’s wit, casting the female Holmes and Watson with some of the same slapstick foibles as the original male characters.
The cast
- Kelen Coleman plays the police consultant Sherlock Holmes — yes, Sherlock; why can’t it also be a woman’s name? — who finds herself solving more crimes than she is consulting police. Coleman has had roles in a number of TV shows including “The Office,” “Big Little Lies” and “How to Get Away with Murder.”
- Regina Fernandez, a veteran of regional theater nationwide including La Mirada, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ensemble Theatre and Theatre Aspen, plays Ms. Joan Watson, an American traveling across Europe who rents a room from Ms. Holmes and unwittingly becomes her crime-solving sidekick.
- Michelle Duffy, an original cast member of “Heathers: The Musical” who also appeared in “Leap of Faith” on Broadway, multitasks in several small roles.
- And Aaron Cammack, making his third and final performance as ATC’s 2024-25 resident artist, also has several roles.
The director
The Tony-nominated director Marcia Milgrom Dodge is back on the Arizona Theatre Company stage a year after she led ATC’s “Master Class” last February.
That performance was her first with ATC in 30 years; she directed “Some Enchanted Evening: The Songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein” in 1994 before going off to direct “Ragtime” on Broadway. She also was the American show director for Tokyo Disneyland’s 40th Anniversary Parade “Harmony in Color” in spring 2023.
If you go
The show opens in previews at 7 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 20, and Wednesday, May 21. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; and 3 p.m. Sundays through June 7, with matinees on May 22 and 28, and June 3-5. Tickets are $33-$113 through atc.org.
