History meets mystery in Sherlock Holmes and the Case of The Jersey Lily . For those not completely enamored with the tales of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, there is far more to watch than the famed detective as he solves another criminal case. Specifically, Holmes’ co-stars include real-life Victorians Oscar Wilde and the famous actress Lillie Langtry, known to her fans as “the Jersey Lily.” The Midwest premiere of Jersey Lily opens the Milwaukee Chamber Theater’s 2018-2019 season in the Broadway Theater Center. Under the crisp direction of Marcella Kearns—who, like the playwright, is also an actress—this charming tale takes theatergoers to Victorian England. There, Sherlock Holmes is attempting to unravel a complicated series of events that involve some old love letters between a young Langtry and someone in England’s royal family. The show gets off to a brisk start, as the wordless opening scene shows an actress (Langtry) being overpowered in her dressing room. A masked thug snatches up something from her vanity and disappears. If that’s not enough to get the audience “hooked,” the next scene nearly guarantees it. It opens with a scullery maid who tries to hire Holmes to solve a mystery. This is Langtry, again, trying to “fool” the great Sherlock Holmes into believing her story. Holmes points out several inconsistences in what Langtry says and how she’s dressed. Delighted that her acting skills could not keep Holmes from seeing through her ruse, Langtry is eager to put him to the task of retrieving the missing love letters.
Watching this farce play out is playwright Oscar Wilde, one of the greatest wits of his time. Langtry and Wilde were friends in real life, and Langtry also is known to have had an affair with the Prince of Wales (who later became King Edward VII). This is where the letters come in.
Jersey Lily’s framework is loosely adapted from the plot of an 1899 play titled, “Sherlock Holmes.” (The show played on both sides of the Atlantic for decades and is one of the main reasons for Holmes’ popularity in the United States.)
To make things more interesting, playwright Katie Forgette adds some of Wilde’s witticisms, not to mention other Holmes’s stories and even Shakespeare. Not surprisingly, it’s easy for the audience to become lost in these overlapping plots. However, plenty of switchbacks and role reversals keep audiences on the edge of their seats for the two-hour performance.
Kay Allmand delivers a Lily Langtry who is neither a contemporary super-woman nor a Victorian fainting flower. Allmand is smart, and her intelligence shines through in all her scenes. She infuses Langtry with a warmth that is not lost on Sherlock Holmes, who she comes to admire during the play. As the title male character, Brian J. Gill is well-suited to the part. Tall and lanky, Gill portrays the unruffled detective and inventor to a “T.” Not only does he manage to find the missing letters that have put Langtry in such a tizzy, but he does it in the way Holmes’s aficionados can appreciate. When Dr. John Watson (Ryan Shabach) marvels at his powers of insight, Holmes responds by instructing Watson on the difference between “seeing” and “observing.”
But where would Holmes be without his arch-nemesis, Professor Moriarty? Actor Matt Daniels enters late in the play as the criminal mastermind Moriarty (though anyone who read the program notes before the show begins might guess that he’s behind the dastardly deed). Daniels is an excellent choice for the role of Moriarty—he’s exceptionally tall and is as menacing a character as one would wish. Much of his dirty work is handled by actor Karen Estrada, who fills a couple of roles in the show. She first appears as Langtry’s maid and assistant. Estrada must tap into her considerable emotional range to be a seemingly concerned maid one minute, and a foul-mouthed forgery expert in her subsequent scenes with Moriarty. As Jersey Lily comes to its end, there’s little doubt that Holmes will once more triumph over the evil Moriarty. But by then, the audience is so wrapped up in a state of self-imposed disbelief that one can’t help wondering how Holmes is going to pull off another triumph—again.
