Interview: 'Murder Mysteries Are a Huge Part of a British Christmas': David Reed And Humphrey Kerr on SHERLOCK HOLMES & THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS at Birmingham Rep

Just in time for the festive season, Sherlock Holmes & The 12 Days of Christmas opens tonight at Birmingham Rep. The show, written by David Reed and Humphrey Kerr with songs by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, follows Sherlock Holmes and John Watson as they must solve a case of dying actors in the West End. 

Recently, we had the chance to speak with Reed and Kerr about Sherlock Holmes & The 12 Days of Christmas. We discussed what inspired them to create the show, taking on the iconic roles of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, and what it has been like collaborating with Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

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How did each of you first get started in the world of theatre?

Humphrey: Almost at the same time, wasn't it?

David: Yeah, we met each other at university and did an improvised comedy show for four years, weekly. And then when we graduated, we formed a sketch group together called The Penny Dreadfuls, and that was our start into the professional world. Whether you'd call it theatre or not, I don't know!

Humphrey: It was in theatre!

David: It was in theatres! Whether it was art . . . I don’t know! [Laughs]

Humphrey: Yes, that's a much harder question to answer. 

David: But our foray into professional theatre has been relatively recent, because I wrote a play that was on at York Theatre Royal called Guy Fawkes four years ago now, and Humph’s recently been in the National, being all swanky and that. 

Humphrey: Yeah, we went from fringe comedy theatre to radio together and then, and then, mostly to TV for the last twenty years, with occasional bits of this, that and the other. But this is a return to our roots, in a way. We definitely cut our teeth doing very silly fringe comedy. Our sketch team, The Penny Dreadfuls, was all Victorian-themed sketches, a lot of Mary Shelley and Sherlock Holmes references and things like that. 

David: Plenty of detectives and sidekicks, even back then!

Humphrey: Invisible men, mummies, all that kind of business. And so it's great to come back to do that again. Just rather than having to make our own props, there's a whole incredible art department here that we go, “Can we get backing dancers dressed as Christmas puddings?”

David: You come in the next day, and there they are! It's a lot better than making things out of cardboard all evening.

Humphrey: Or drawing things on pieces of paper and being like, “This is a theatre of the absurd! Here you go, here's a car!”

David: “We meant it to be like this, not that we have no money.” It's been incredible, actually, to be able to play in such a wonderful space with departments on hand, making stupid ideas come to life!

What was the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes & The 12 Days of Christmas?

Humphrey: Well, we both have long maintained that murder mysteries are a huge part of a British Christmas. That's culturally a big thing here. My wife's from the US, and when she first came over here to spend Christmas with my family, she was like, “You guys watch a lot of murder mysteries at Christmas time!” Whether it's Hercule Poirot or Sherlock or Miss Marple or Knives Out or any of those sorts of things, they are big, cosy country house murder mysteries. So when we were approached about potentially doing a Christmas show, initially a pantomime, we both were like, “Ooh, could we do like a murdery type show?” The two go together!

David: There's something so intrinsically Christmassy about Victorian London already, probably because of Dickens and A Christmas Carol . . . 

Humphrey: And The Muppet Christmas Carol!

David: So we were just like, “Well, why don't we just feed that back into the machine and put the two together?” It just seemed to make perfect sense for us. And then at the same time, we got to set it at the West End in actual Christmas shows, so it's a love story to Christmas theatre, really. And to kill all those people at the same time - always fun! [Laughs]

Can you tell us a bit about the creative process for the show?

David: It was rather difficult, because we got the commission from Tim Rice's company, Heartaches, and then lockdown happened immediately. Because Humphrey was in Los Angeles and I was in North Yorkshire, we couldn't actually meet up and discuss it. So early doors, it all happened on Zoom, and we would pass a draft of the script back and forth across the Atlantic until we finally got to a finished script. That was the early days of it. And then, thankfully, things opened up again, everything got a bit easier and smoother, and we were able to workshop it in a room with a cast of actors and actually hear it out loud. 

Humphrey: And it's been really fun, because we were able to call on all our friends who were amazing sketch and fringe character comedians and actors and singers and musicians and things like that. We've built a real all-star lineup! 

So this show's been in development for five years now, then!

David: It has been. We've not been working flat out for five years, I will say! The script’s barely changed! 

Humphrey: We haven’t got bored of the jokes yet!

David: Not yet! Bringing in songs has been another part of it, because, of course, we've got the other creative partnership with different strings to their bow in Andrew and Tim. So it's been having those songs come in and then blending them with our words - making it work as a single piece has been really exciting to see! And actually, that's been coming together here in Birmingham for the first time in many ways. 

Humphrey: The script has influenced the songs, the songs have influenced the script, and getting them to blend in together and make sense in the world that we've all created together has been so fun.

What is it like to be a duo working with the musical duo of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber? 

Humphrey: Well, Dave's much more musical than I am - I can't read music. I don't understand how to write a song or anything. So every time they produce something, I'm like, “They've done a piece of magic!” I'm so amazed and astonished and excited. 

David: Whereas I know enough to nod sagely on the side and just go, “I have a vague idea how they did that!” [Laughs]

Humphrey: But yeah, it's been amazing, because obviously they are masters of their craft. And it's been a quite surreal and fun experience to get voice notes from Andrew being like, “I just thought something like this,” and then you hear him play his piano, and you're like, “Oh, I love that, that's amazing!” 

David: There is something incredibly surreal and wonderful about having WhatsApp messages of Andrew Lloyd Webber on his grand piano at home, going, “I was thinking something along these lines.” And then you go, “Nobody else has heard this. This is just an original piece by Andrew Lloyd Webber on our WhatsApp group!”

And how have the rehearsals been going for Sherlock Holmes & The 12 Days of Christmas?

David: So well is the boring answer! But yeah, it's been so fun. We've got a cast of thirteen singers, dancers, comedians together to play our entire ensemble. Some of us are playing only one character, some people are doubling up because it's quite a sprawling world of West End Victorian London - we visit lots of different locations. So it's been really nice to finally have those voices out in the real world talking to us rather than just rattling around our skulls. 

Humphrey: Dave and I weren't both able to be in every single audition, so when we arrived here a couple of weeks ago, there were some people that I had seen audition and had given the thumbs up to, and there were some people that Dave had seen and given the thumbs up to. So for me, getting to see Dave see how great the people were that I had been like, “This guy's great. You're gonna love him when you see him!”  Has been really fun to say.

David: We are working hard as well. We are on track to getting a show up in time! [Laughs] But we've been doing songs, we've been doing movement, we've been doing fights, we've been doing magic tricks . . . We've got an illusions department! We've been doing some acting. 

Humphrey: Yeah, light acting! [Laughs] 

David: It's been wonderful so far!

And you're also playing the roles of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. What is it like to be taking on these iconic characters?

Humphrey: It's so fun. It's great, because what we're trying to do is make the “Sherlock-iest” version of Sherlock that we can. We're pumping in every little reference and bit and joke and costume. It's nice that it's not a production where I've got to create my own version of Sherlock that isn't Benedict Cumberbatch, that isn't Basil Rathbone - I'm stealing everything I possibly can from all of them! [Laughs]

David: But also, selfishly, we never assumed we'd be playing these parts ourselves. In the beginning, we just wrote the script! But, reading between the lines, we did just write ourselves. We wrote our comic personas that we've been playing versions of for twenty years together. So for me, it feels very easy to just slot back into that, to find our feet with the rhythm. And we've played versions of these many times in our sketches. So it is a dream! 

Humphrey: It's very fun. I feel like I keep saying “fun,” which is the most boring thing to read in an interview! [Laughs] But it is very fun! We’ve gotta say stuff like, “It's really hard,” and then we'll get a better chance of people being impressed by us.

David: That's how we get the Olivier! It’s been a real challenge. 

Humphrey: I’ve gone to some very dark places in myself. I guess I've become him? 

What do you hope audiences take away from Sherlock Holmes & the 12 Days of Christmas? 

Humphrey: I just want them to have a really fun time and to feel ready for Christmas. It's an absurdly Christmasy show. There’s the costumes, the music, the everything! You just want people to leave being like, “That was a blast.” 

David: We've just thrown in everything we'd want to see from a Christmas show. 

Humphrey: And, I would love them to be like, “You know what? I didn't see who the killer was!” 

David: Yeah! We would like them to take away their own promise that they're not going to tell everyone else who it is. We've not really thought about that, but we need audiences to zip it! Because we've tried to write a proper murder mystery, with a slightly disposable panto plot. It's got proper thrills and spills!

And finally, how would you describe the show in one word?

David: Christmas! [Laughs]

Humphrey: Mayhem! That's what we're aiming for. 

David: I'll add in “festive” to combine with “mayhem” to make “festive mayhem,” if we're allowed two words together!

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