NEW YORK —The fictional worlds of Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lovingly collide in playwright Mark Shanahan’s not-at-all humbug, “A Sherlock Carol” at New World Stages. This delightful mash-up features beloved literary characters, one from the Dickens’ novella “A Christmas Carol” and various elements from Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories—in particular, the only Holmes tale Doyle set during Christmas: “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.”
It’s Christmas Eve morning in London in the year 1894 and Sherlock Holmes (Drew McVety), “the world’s foremost consulting detective,” is in a terrible funk. Since the death of his arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty three years earlier, Holmes has found no one of similar mental acuity with whom to match wits. As a result, Holmes feels he no longer has any purpose in life and has refused to take on any new cases, though there is no shortage of people seeking his help.
