A SHERLOCK CAROL Returns to Westport Country Playhouse

Westport Country Playhouse will raise its curtain this month on A Sherlock Carol. Its writer and original director, Mark Shanahan, in his role as the Playhouse's artistic director, is overseeing a third holiday season of the show with members of the original New York company, joined this year by James Taylor Odom in the title role.

As A Sherlock Carol continues to spread, from major regional theatres to university stages and beyond, its original New York cast continues to find a seasonal home at Westport Country Playhouse.

Shanahan, now in his tenure as artistic director, has been delighted the Playhouse audience has embraced it, producing it for three consecutive seasons with original Off-Broadway cast members and understudies. "I cherish the experience of working with this wonderful family of artists," he states. "I am so lucky to know them all."

This year, that family expands to welcome James Taylor Odom as Sherlock Holmes. Says Odom "When I saw A Sherlock Carol in New York, I knew I would one day be in it somewhere. And now, here I am with Mark and his incredible company of actors at the Westport Country Playhouse. I love this character, I love this play."

Tony nominee Isabel Keating, a original member of that "incredible company," speaks to the play's emotional core. "This play is very special. It's more than a mystery or even a Christmas Carol. It has heart. It has love. We knew from the first performance it was special." Original company member Mark Price agrees, "The group of actors assembled by Mark is so incredibly special. There's generosity, a sense of play and heart offered-storytelling at its absolute best. It will always remain one of my favorite performing experiences."

From a childhood matinee in a small, East Village movie theatre to successful runs Off-Broadway, sold out nights in London and productions around the world, A Sherlock Carol has become exactly what some critics and audience members suspected it might be: a new Christmas tradition.

For Shanahan, bringing it back to Westport, where the script once existed only as an online reading and a hope for the future, is a reminder that heroes, fictional or otherwise, have a way of returning when we need them most. "I have loved these characters since I was a boy. They've seen me through a lot. Watching them come alive onstage has meant the world to me."

Performances run December 13-21.