DETROIT, MI–Sherlock Holmes is all the rage. New plays featuring the London sleuth are popping up all over even though playwrights still have to go through the estate managers of Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle for another six years.

Heading into Halloween weekend, we have two recently written plays running into their last weekend of performances: Ken Ludwig’s Moriarty-A New Sherlock Holmes Adventure; and Sherlock Holmes and The White City, by Linda Ramsay-Detherage.

Moriarty delves into an investigation into the Bohemian king’s stolen letters, which cascades into an international mystery filled with spies, blackmail, and intrigue. Holmes and Watson join forces with American actress Irene Adler to try and take down cunning criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty and his network of henchmen.

Ludwig, known for Crazy For You, Lend Me A Tenor, A Fox On The Fairway, An American in Paris, and many more, seems a little out of his depth in Moriarty. He tries to make it a physical comedy, perhaps the most difficult feat for a playwright to accomplish. Despite an excellent cast, the whole thing just doesn’t land very well gag to gag, joke to joke, prat-fall to prat-fall.

The problem is that the brand of humor Ludwig goes for, and his execution, does not honor the Holmes character. It’s not sharp, witty humor, which suits the character and tradition, but rather physical humor/sketch comedy that tries to hard to be funny. It’s not a good match.

Ron Williams plays a solid Sherlock, but could use better writing to make the role stand up. Phil Powers is a suitably avuncular Watson. Stephen Blackwell, Jennifer Byrne and Cheryl Turski round out the excellent cast, playing multiple charcters. Turski, for example, plays Adler, Mrs. Hudson and Cartright. Indeed, seeing these first-rate players dip in and out of multiple roles is part of the fun that transcends the writing.

Travis W. Walter directs. Ken Price Fick designed the excellent versatile set. Liz Goodall designed costumes, period apparel for 1891 and for multiple geographies. Brian Debs on lighting. Mike Dugan on Sound.

Down Route 75, Planet Ant is presenting Sherlock Holmes and The White City. This  yarn, written by Linda Ramsay-Detherage, is more interesting than Moriarty, exploring  a real-life (and death) story that took place in Chicago during the time of The World’s Fair.

Holmes ( Jeff Fritz) has faked his own death two years earlier and is seen sometimes in a dress, passing himself off as a woman. Watson (Mike McGettigan) keeps his secret, as does Mrs, Hudson (Sarah Burcon).  Jeanine Thompson plays Violet Frost, a nemesis/love interest of Holmes’ past who leads him to Chicago.

There, the group encounters Mr. Mudgett (Dan Pesta) aka H.H. Holmes, an apparent keeper of a lodging establishment. Or is he? Mudgett was an actual con-artist and serial killer in Chicago, committing his crimes between 1891 and 1894. Worth noting is that Mudgett (aka Holmes) was a student at University of Michigan’s Department of Medicine and Surgery and graduated in 1884. Mudgett was said to be a real-life ghoul while in Ann Arbor, reportedly robbing graves to supply cadavers to the medical school along with faculty member William James Herdman.

The real Mudgett took his alias from Doyle’s character, making Ramsay-Detherage’s approach to her Holmes story all the more deft and delicious. Perhaps it is the noir set and atmosphere that sometimes robs White City from some energy that would lift the whole piece a bit. McGettigan also directs the play, and that can be a problematic choice sometimes to direct and act one of the principal roles. It’s hard to see energy when you are on stage rather than looking at the players from the Director’s chair.

Ramsay-Detherage’s script is far more interesting and deftly handled than Moriarty. Set in the intimate and somewhat lugubrious Planet Ant black box, atmosphere with a very simple set, is more reflective of Doyle’s moody, fiddle-playing, drug-using sleuth.

Heading into Halloween weekend, check out Sherlock Holmes and The White City for some gloom and good story telling. Check out Moriarty if you want a lighter touch on the Doyle legacy and pipe-smoking Sherlock.