Sherlock Holmes Reviews
Chicago Tribune- Not Recommended
"...The level of misdirection does not end with the casting — nothing is allowed to breathe nor gel here for so much as a second, and there are many seconds in 2 1/2 hours of restless, insecure, overextended claptrap."
Chicago Sun Times- Recommended
"...While this “Sherlock Holmes” is no Benedict Cumberbatch-style update, director Andrew Shaver has set his Victorian world at high speed, infused it with bursts of expressionistic movement (courtesy of Annie St. Pierre), and envisioned it in a sleekly contemporary way that involves the work of set designer James Lavoie (who gets maximum effect from moveable screens and two steel stairways on wheels), lighting designer Itai Erdel, and the sophisticated black-and-white video design of George Allister and Patrick Andrew Boivan."
ShowBizChicago- Not Recommended
"...What happens when you take a rambling script, mediocre actors, Monty Python and you package them for Broadway? You get the Sherlock Holmes, now in a one-week, pre-Broadway tour at the Oriental Theatre. Now I am sure this looked good on paper when the producers got the idea of harnessing the current mania for everything Sherlock Holmes and putting pop television stars in a play that won 5 “prestigious” Montreal English Theatre Awards and played to sold out houses in Montreal in 2013. However, what has materialized had many trying to comprehend what was going on, leaving the theatre during the show and lukewarm applause at the end of the first act. I truly felt bad for the actors who were working their tails off trying to make us laugh."
ChicagoCritic- Not Recommended
"...When silliness abounds when audiences expects a classic Holmes mystery and the characters become inarticulate buffoons, folks comment by leaving the production early. While the action was furious, some of the staging impressive, the uneven style and the contradictory tone simply wore out its welcome. We don’t care for Holmes or James Maslow’s Watson as we impatiently sit through the two and a half hour over produced parody."
Around The Town Chicago- Not Recommended
"...My evening at the theater has been spoiled”. This is a line in tonight’s Broadway In Chicago’s “Sherlock Holmes”, an original adaptation by Greg Kramer that was of course inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic tales. These books and movies are indeed classical, and have a huge following of loyal fans, many of whom probably already ordered their tickets for this one week production on the stage of The Oriental Theatre. To those people, I must say, sorry!"