A Sherlock Holmes musical? As part of Black History Month in Hillingdon, Middlesex? But here it is in the programme: The Baskerville Beast, a musical version of the classic Conan Doyle story, a World Premiere no less, "part of an ongoing project to encourage and help young people into writing, by Teddy Hayes's production company SKD".

Teddy Hayes, thought I, it's that man again. Based in the UK since the mid-90s, Mr. Hayes is the Renaissance man of UK crime fiction: first a television script-writer and film-maker in the USA, now a novelist with four Devil Barnett private eye novels to his credit, novels set in New York's Harlem (but first published over here by the X Press). Teddy has been spreading his UK wings lately, for instance into his recent `guerilla' film production My Name is Amy Tillman, a psychological chiller soon to be available, he hopes, at a DVD supplier near you. The Baskerville Beast is in fact Hayes's fifth theatre production, his third in the UK, after a US career that included The Champeen, directed by his old mentor Melvin Van Peebles (Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song), starring Harold Nicholas, the younger of the legendary dancing duo, the Nicholas Brothers.

So why a musical Holmes? Well, music has long been another string to the Teddy Hayes bow. Talk to him nicely and names like Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis and A1 Jarreau soon crop up. Then there is his work in music video production, for example, where his CV includes names like Quincy Jones and rap star Notorious B.I.G. So it was no surprise to find his name as the music credit for Amy Tillman. Besides, such a move hasn't done Victor Hugo any harm, and I doubt Wilkie Collins is revolving in his grave too much as his Woman in White hits London's West End. For Beast, Hayes explains, he has come up with the basic tunes for the show, leaving their development and orchestration to his musical associate Chris Jerome. The lyrics are Hayes's own.

As for Black History Month, for Teddy Hayes such an event is not only about foregrounding black art and culture, but must also show how black artists can contribute to the mainstream.

Still, Uxbridge Library is not perhaps the best venue in which to stage a musical. A simple plain back-drop, a disguised entrance and exit area at the rear of the performance area, is about all there is. We are getting a shortened, minimalist version of the full production, The Baskerville Beast to be evoked only through on-stage words and off-stage sound effects. Hayes sits at a table to the rear of his performers with his script (to fill in the narrative gaps in the shortened version) and a portable CD player (to provide the cues and musical backing for the songs).

But such limitations quickly fade from the mind as the drama gets under way. Following the source novel pretty closely (Hayes is nothing if not a traditionalist) we are at once transported to 221B Baker Street as Watson is invited by Holmes to deduce what he can from the walking stick left behind the previous night by Dr. James Mortimer. And immediately we are conscious that there will be nothing lacking in the key actors. John Elnaugh makes a splendidly melodramatic Holmes, glinting with flinty intelligence, with just a hint of Jeremy Brett-like arrogance. Paul Engers straightaway exhibits the solid dependability of a classic Watson, whilst Sarah MacDonnell (of whom more later) bustles convincingly as Mrs Hudson. With the introduction of John Pyle as James Mortimer, the
stage is set for the first song.

We hear eight highly effective numbers, musically from the Quincy Jones/standards end of the Hayes CV - a hip hop Holmes just might be a step too far! The songs vary from the opening scene-setting and narrative number Do You Know the Baskervilles, via a tongue-twisting Logical Deduction by a solo Holmes, John Elnaugh making up with polished brio for anything lacking in the vocal department, to a rousing finale in praise of The Detective of the Century.Along the way, Barrymore (the butler, also played by John Pyle) impressed with I Got a Little Secret; there was Magic For Me, a touching duet between Beryl Stapleton (beautifully played by Sarah MacDonnell) and Sir Henry Baskerville (Miles Eagling) along with Beryl's own delightful feature, Bastard with a Capital B. Throughout, the dazzling dexterity of Teddy Hayes's lyrics is often apparent.

There was also what might perhaps be the hit of the show, a storming turn by Miles Western as the conniving Stapleton, singing Revenge is Sweeter (Once the Dish is Cold), which rang the changes from bristling Victorian villain to the swinging devilish charm of a Frank Sinatra or Bobby Darin.

The minutes zip by and an hour later it is all over. The audience, both black and white, young and old, is delighted. I chat to one or two after the performance, including one elderly lady, clearly a Conan Doyle aficionado. "Watson would never have said `Blimey"', she tells me, a reference to one of the Hayes lyrics. (Hayes tells me later he will change to phrase to "by Jove"!). But, like the rest of the audience, she also is much impressed by what she has seen and heard.

So it's on to the Questors Theatre,in Ealing London in March 2005 for a full-length (two hour) production with more songs, more extensive choreography and music, and, Teddy Hayes assures us, a rather more tangible Baskerville Beast. There is even talk of a tour, reaching venues beyond London. Terrific stuff: a notable addition to the canon, I'd say. It should be a marvellously entertaining evening. Watch this space for a production near you.

BOB CORNWELL
26.11.2004
The Baskerville Beast photographer, Michael Steffin

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