How Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure came to be

(L to R) Matthew Carlton as Dr. Watson,
David Compton as Sherlock Holmes

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself authored the first version of this script in 1896 or so. He submitted it to the great American impresario and theatre syndicate monopolist Charles Frohman, who suggested it be given to American actor/playwright/producer William H. Gillette for further development. Doyle agreed, cashed his option check and washed his hands of it. During rewrites, Gillette cabled Doyle, “May I marry Holmes?” Doyle’s reply was succinct. “Marry him, murder him, do what you like!”

The play Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle and W.H. Gillette, with Gillette in the title role, was a sensation in the 1899-1900 Broadway season and on subsequent tour throughout America, and was the first American play (and actor) to achieve financial and artistic success in London. Gillette’s performance originated many of the trademark details that the public has come to associate with the character; the houndstooth Inverness cape and deerstalker cap, the meerschaum pipe, the self-designation of his deductions to be of an elementary nature, and a scene between Holmes and Moriarty so electrifying that over a hundred years later, only geeky Sherlock Holmes nuts (we call them “Sherlockians” in America) know that the encounter is purely an invention of Gillette. He played Holmes on the stage for more than twenty years, but dominated the public’s expectations of the character for more than a century.

The play being a star vehicle for the co-author, Dr. Watson was, unfortunately, relegated to the background, functioning primarily as a sounding board for Holmes. Hollywood later compounded the situation by utilizing the good doctor as comic relief. Only readers recognized that this steadfast friendship between two seemingly mismatched companions – the stalwart man’s man and the brilliant, remote intellectual – was the central thread of the canon.

In 2006, American playwright and certifiable Sherlockian Steven Dietz adapted Gillette’s adaptation of Doyle’s own stage adaptation, retaining Gillette’s basic plot lines while bringing the characters more into line with Doyle’s original intent and, most importantly, returning Watson to his rightful place at center stage with Holmes. Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure has played at “adult” regional theatres across America, and wherever it has played, critics have acclaimed it as a wonderful piece “for the whole family.” I quite agree, in fact, I thought it the perfect play to launch our own foray into full-length presentation for our family audience.

The game is afoot, dear friends. Enjoy.

Scot Copeland

NCT Producing Director and

director of NCT's Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure