Theater Review: Ken Ludwig's Baskerville

            

                            

                                     Omri Schein, Brian Mackey and John Wells III

There’s funny, there’s lunatic and then there’s Ken Ludwig’s “Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery,” which almost defies description. But don’t let that keep you from Lamb’s Players Theatre, where the show plays through November 20.

Ludwig likes making fun of Holmes. In a previous play, 2012’s “The Game’s Afoot,” a group of actors who had previously done a Holmes piece convene for a party that turns into a murder mystery à la Sherlock. 

But “Baskerville” is played strictly for laughs. The setup features

Brian Mackey as Sherlock Holmes, John Wells III as Dr. Watson and three other actors (Michael Cusimano, Omri Schein and Angela Chatelain Avila) playing a total of 37 other characters.

You read that right, and to make it happen, there’s a lot of (well, let’s just say constant) running around and costume changing going on. 

Is there a plot? Well, sort of. It seems the male heirs of the Baskerville clan are being murdered one by one. Will Holmes solve the case? He seems more interested in Being Sherlock than in Doing Sherlock.

Nonetheless, a tiresome Texan (played by Cusimano) arrives, claiming to be the next in line and wanting to take over the foggy Baskerville mansion. And there are all those moors out there, lonely and scary. And what about the famous Hound of the Baskervilles?

One of my favorite Lamb’s regulars, Omri Schein, plays a gaggle of crazies with his usual joy, like the one named Stapleton, who runs around with a butterfly net. And Avila pretends to be Stapleton’s sister, as well as playing several other nutty characters.

Congratulations to the design and tech crews that put this together: costumer Jemima Dutra, lighting designer Nathan Person, sound designer Deborah Gilmour Smyth, sound and projection engineer Patrick Duffy, projection designer Christian Turner and fight choreographer Jordan Miller.

It was a lot of work, I’m sure, and the audience reaps the benefits in laughs, chuckles, chortles and giggles. 

The details

“Baskerville” plays through November 20, 2022 (and again January 3-8, 2023) at Lamb’s Players Theatre, 1142 Orange Ave. in Coronado

Shows Wednesday through Saturday at 7 p.m.; Matinees Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Tickets: (619) 437-6000 or Box.Office@LambsPlayers.org