蜜聊直播

There won鈥檛 be any 鈥渁hhh-ha!鈥� epiphanies midway into the two-hour performance where you think you鈥檝e put together all the pieces of playwright Kate Hamill鈥檚 multilayered storyline.

There are far too many dots to connect:

Was it the widow of Victim No. 1 found with slit wrists in the 鈥淥tel鈥� bathtub?

The smarmy, long-haired billionaire Elliot Monk from Texas, donning skintight skinny jeans and a bare chest?

Or maybe it was Irene Adler, the seductress con artist who鈥檚 blackmailing Monk with an incriminating video?

The plot hilariously twists and turns as character stories inexplicably intertwine, and even if you were keeping a mental scorecard, you鈥檇 lose your place.

Solving the mystery is not really the point of 鈥淢s. Holmes & Ms. Watson 鈥� Apt. 2B,鈥� which opened Friday night at ATC鈥檚 longtime Tucson home.

It鈥檚 more about the journey.

Joan Watson is an American doctor in London, trying to find herself after losing everything 鈥� her profession, her husband and her perfect life 鈥� to the pandemic and ends up sharing a flat with Sherlock Holmes, a singularly-focused 鈥渃onsulting detective鈥� with hyper-keen observational skills and questionable social skills. Watson unwittingly gets roped into becoming Holmes鈥� assistant as she goes about solving seemingly unrelated murders that point toward Holmes and her little black book of criminal secrets.

The story is thin but the humor is thick, a point Director Marcia Milgrom Dodge smartly emphasized from the opening scene where the real Sherlock Holmes (the very funny Aaron Cammack in one of several roles he played including Inspector Lestrade) emerges on stage mistakenly thinking he was going to solve a great mystery for Friday night鈥檚 opening night audience.

Regina Fernandez鈥檚 Ms. Watson is a vulnerable shell of the pre-COVID doctor who was once regarded as a medical superstar at home until she鈥檚 forced to stand up to Ms. Holmes. Kelen Coleman, effecting a pretty terrific British accent, was rigidly old-school Scotland Yard investigator. Instead of 鈥淕oogling鈥� as her living-in-the-21st-century roommate suggests, she pulls out a giant magnifying glass when the two women climbed into the 鈥淥tel鈥� tub with the dead guy (played by a blowup doll).

Dodge had the women tangled up with the victim, who at one point flopped on top of Ms. Watson, pinning her in the tub as Ms. Holmes went off to look for more clues. When she returns, Holmes folds the dead guy鈥檚 legs to free Watson in one of the evening鈥檚 most hilarious scenes.

Dodge also lets the audience in on the joke as the characters react with exaggeration to the iconic dun dun duun! plot twist sound effects.

The play鈥檚 lone poignant moment came when Fernandez鈥檚 Watson told the story of how the pandemic stole her joy; it was the only time during that the Temple was silent.

Fernandez and Coleman were terrifically funny, but some of the biggest laughs at Friday鈥檚 opening night went to Cammack, in his final appearance as ATC鈥檚 2024-25 resident artist, and the brilliantly funny Michelle Duffy, playing the keys-fumbling, Nervous Nellie landlord Mrs. Hudson and the dominatrix-like escort/con artist Irene Adler.

鈥淢s. Holmes & Ms. Watson 鈥� Apt. 2B鈥� continues at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave., through June 7. For tickets and times, visit .