The Original Baker Street Babes, Part 4
This concludes Howard Ostrom’s groundbreaking historical research project. We appreciate his willingness for us to debut the project on our site, and we’ve loved learning about the amazing women who have portrayed Holmes throughout history.
Original Baker Street Babes
Female Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson Performers
by
Howard Ostrom
Part Four (2014 – Present 6/30/16) Stage, Film, Radio, TV & Internet
2014 – Pauley Perrette (1969 – ), who plays the offbeat forensic scientist Abby Scuito, on the CBS’s top rated show “NCIS”, wears an unusual deerstalker, and uttered the lines “Elementary, my dear Gibbs” to Mark Harmon, agent Jethro Gibbs, in a 2014 episode of “NCIS”. Pauley stated later, she didn’t know it was called a ‘deer stalker’.
2014 – Lyudmila Polyanskaya dressed to the nines as a female Sherlock Holmes in a musical stage play “Tarzan Love Story”. Yes I said, “Tarzan Love Story”! The Russian people love Sherlock Holmes so much they included him in a Tarzan musical, which was performed July 25, 2014, at the schools of Muscovites Chikhacheva.
2014 – Rachel Rouge played a burlesque version of Sherlock Holmes in “A Study in Pink” in Wellington, New Zealand. “A Study in Pink” is described as, “an evening of erudite escapades, as Sherlock Holmes, with her trusty (and sultry) sidekick Watson, explores London’s seedy underbelly of Victorian London, in search of a cunning killer.”
2014 – Katherine Ryan and Lisa Burscheidt of the Baker Street Babes voiced the parts of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in a live radio play performance of “Charles Augustus Milverton” for The Sherlock Holmes Society of London.
2014-16 – Amanda O’Halloran is Miss Sherlock Holmes and Liz Bragg is Dr. Jane Watson in the play “Bitch of the Baskervilles”. “In this madcap adventure by award-winning Toronto playwright S.R. Kriger, Holmes sends Watson to take on the giant bitch that has already killed one Baskerville and seems to be stalking the second. Full of incriminating clues, and improbable mires, moors, Napoleons, one-liners, snakes, dizzying scene swapping and women playing major roles (gasp!), the show is impossible to resist. And of course, there are corsets.
2014 – Amanda Watson and Bree Vreedenburgh performed as Holmes and Watson in “The Hound of the Baskervilles”. It took place in Belmont (a suburb of Perth), Australia. This was the Steve Canny and John Nicholson adaptation of Hound, so an all female cast of three performed all the parts.
2014 – Amrita Bhagia, played Sherlock Holmes in the stage production “Sherlock Holmes and the Spinsters of Blackmead”. “Someone is murdering the women of Blackmead Manor, and the fiercely independent female academic community is reluctant to ask for help from outsiders. When Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are drawn into the case, they find their reception as sticky as the mystery they must solve. A servant is found dead, a member of the Blackmead community is missing, and the great detective uncovers links to his arch enemy, Professor Moriarty. Is this merely another interesting case or a fatal trap for Holmes himself?” This play was a presentation of the Fine Arts Department of Lourdes High School of Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
2014-15 – Amanda Madison played Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Blue Carbuncle at the Brass Works Theatre in Warmley, Bristol, U.K.
2014 – Grace Romania in “Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars” plays the lead role of Wiggins, who takes over the Holmes role from an ill Sherlock, in this stage offering. Sherlock Holmes has inexplicably fallen seriously ill and cannot solve the case while investigating the murder of Crispin, the sword swallower, at the Wainwright Circus. Fortunately, the Baker Street Irregulars — a group of street children who assist Holmes on occasion — take it upon themselves to find the murderer, save Holmes and prove the adults wrong.
2014-15 – Catherine Chandon, in the French play “Le Dog des Baskerville”, played Imogene Mc Fly (Sherlock Holmes assistant since there was no Dr. Watson), Stapleton Juarez, and Clarabelle Barrymore. In the absence of Dr. Watson, the famous detective Sherlock Holmes and his new assistant, Imogen Mc Fly, engaged in a dangerous investigation that led them from 221B Baker Street, to the misty moors of Scotland. Jean-Jacques Dorier played Sherlock Holmes.
2014 – Present – Shannen Michaelson and Sara-Renee Weatherby play Sherlock Holmes and Jamie Watson the web series “The Adventures of Jamie Watson (and Sherlock Holmes)”. “The Adventures of Jamie Watson”, also known as TAJWASH, is a web series based on the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, produced by Remarkable, Singular, Curious Productions. Season one aired from August 10, 2014 to May 22, 2015. Season two officially began airing on September 12, 2015. The series follows Jamie Watson and her roommate Sherlock Holmes. Jamie makes videos for her sister, Hannah, to let her know that she’s doing okay. Jamie begins helping Sherlock solve cases in their town that range from theft to murder.
2015 – Elise Heaven played Sherlock Holmes, Barrymore, Cecile, The hound, Stapelton, and yokel 3, in “The Hound of The Baskervilles” at The Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham (2015).
2015 – Jessica Lisette and Jeanette Lisette, Jessica is a singer from Nevada who came up with a fun song, titled “Elementary Song”, that features a great deal of Sherlock imagery in the lyrics and video. “In the photo on the right below, Jessica Lisette (right) wears a deerstalker cap like you-know-who while her sister, Jeanette (left) goes all Watson.”
2015 – Erin Simmons, rotates as one of the five Sherlock Holmes performers in a seven actor improv group whose motto is no script, just let it rip. “Adventures of the Improvised Sherlock Holmes” is the play and group title, and you can find them at Fringe Festivals through the U.K.
2015 – Hannah Drew plays Sherlock Holmes and Karen Slater plays Jane Watson in web series revolving around Jane Watson, and her challenging roommate Sherlock Holmes (It’s a girl’s name!) It is called “Baker Street: The Web Series”
Filmed in Toronto, Canada, you can watch the three part series on Youtube.
Part 1 “Jane Watson is stuck. She’s dropped out of med school to come back to a city she has no idea how to navigate. She’s broke, alone, and totally screwed. Plus, her new roommate might be insane.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wojZx2HaHE&list=PL6m8pknf2xi8pEsrUqPSgIY2b7QWeGXwa
Part 2 “It’s been a couple months, and the novelty of a new roommate is wearing thin. Sherlock’s smart. Sherlock’s great. Sherlock’s a petty crook, and Sherlock NEVER SLEEPS. And Jane’s attention has wandered…” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq3FLM-W-Ig&list=PL6m8pknf2xi8pEsrUqPSgIY2b7QWeGXwa&index=2
Part 3 “Something’s missing. Something was stolen. Again. Sherlock wants it back, Jane doesn’t want to know, and someone else wants them both out of the picture.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eBMLWapTB0&list=PL6m8pknf2xi8pEsrUqPSgIY2b7QWeGXwa&index=3
2015 – Ryleigh Braun fills big gumshoes as Sherlock Holmes in ballet slippers, in the Crawfordville Academy of Dance’s “Scooby Doo & The Case of the Missing Hotdogs”. Wonder if that is one of the cases from Watson’s tin box?
2015 – Macy Ostrom my personal favorite Watson, was spotted at 221B Con in Atlanta wearing Jackie Chan’s original Dr. Watson outfit from the movie “Shanghai Knights”. You also might have spotted her in a cameo in the Ross K. Foad web-series the “Mary Morstan Mysteries”. I have no idea who that old codger playing Sherlock Holmes is with her.
2015 – Silvana Montoya and Jess Hilliard, as Cherlock Holmes and Dr. Gwatson, brought a South American flavor to the production “El Hound de los Baskervilles” at the Brighton Fringe.
2015 – Mya Rodriguez played Sherlock Holmes in the Otay Ranch High Theatre production of “The Singular Adventure of the Gloved Pianist”
2015 – Gia Mora and Alana Jordan as Sheridan Hume and Johnny Watts, are modern day woman Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in the web-series “Herlock”. “ ‘Herlock’ is a light-hearted mystery-drama web series featuring two extraordinary young women who combine their talents to fight for justice in an unjust world. The stories draw inspiration from the “Sherlock Holmes” characters and situations created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. For example, the pilot episode has elements of the story “Silver Blaze,” and is called “Silver Blade.” So it’s that kind of thing.”
2015 – Loren O’Dair is an American actress who played Sherlock Holmes in the play “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”, an American play written and directed by Desiree Sanchez, performed by the Aquila Theatre company.
2015 – Jasmine Atkins-Smart, Holmes and Watson (Thomas Parker) in “The Accidental Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” haven’t had a case for a very long time. “Holmes is bored and experimenting with LSD on Mrs Hudson while Watson is worried that he won’t be able to pay the rent without a new adventure to write about. Then Isabella Lime arrives – a new client with a new case. When Holmes accidentally kills her, he starts making up an outlandish murder plot to avoid arrest. Except, naturally, all is not as it seems. To say anything more would be to give too much away but, as is to be expected, there’s a lot of preposterous clue solving and an ever-growing master plan behind the scenes, linking everything together.” Casting Call Pro also list her playing Sherlock Holmes in “Hound of the Baskerville” in (2013) at Brasshouse Theatre.
2015 – Charlotte Merry played Sherlock Holmes, for Bablake School a leading Independent co-educational school in Coventry, in their production of “The Final Problem: The Reichenbach Falls” .
2015 – Christine Riippi is Sherlock Holmes and Amalia Larson is J. Watson in “The Modern Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”,an improvised play that puts an audience member’s mystery in the hands of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective.Inspired by recent re-imaginings like the BBC’s Sherlock and CBS’ Elementary, The Modern Adventures of Sherlock Holmes will create a new story at every performance based on a seemingly uncomplicated mystery suggested by the audience. Every story will unfold live and without a script as Holmes and Watson navigate the seedy underbelly of modern-day London in search of answers.
2015 -Eva McQuade plays Sherlock Holmes in a fresh re-telling of Doyle’s beloved novel developed by the British comedy trio Peepolykus in 2007.”When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on his estate with a look of terror still etched on his face and the paw prints of a gigantic hound beside his body, the great detective Sherlock Holmes is summoned from Baker Street with Dr Watson in tow to unravel the mysteries surrounding his death and investigate the ancient curse of the Hound of the Baskervilles. In this hilarious, new adaptation for three actors, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic mystery has been supercharged with playfulness and wit reminiscent of Monty Python and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).”
2015-16 Helen Davis and Lisa Bunker play Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Johanna Watson in “S-her-lock: The Web Series,” which is a feminist, LGBTQIA positive, independent television series based on the characters and stories created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Set in 1995, we see Sherlock Holmes become an asexual British woman who dwells in New England after a bad spell. Alongside Sherlock is of course her friend and colleague of four years, Dr. Johanna Watson, a transwoman and former army doctor. Residing in Portland, Me., Holmes and Watson are firmly under the thumb of their landlord, Mr Hudson, who is a local drag queen.”
Season one “S-her-lock” episodes are:
S1 Ep.1 “The Adventure of Mo Money Mo Problems”
Dr. Watson’s old friend seeks out advice concerning her cranky landlord.
S1 Ep.2 “The Adventure of the Devil’s Dance”
A Forced Family Fun Retreat is interrupted by a murder.
S1 Ep.3 “The Adventure of Charlotte Agnes Milverton”
Holmes is persuaded to take on New England’s most prolific blackmailer.
S1 Ep.4 “The Adventure of the Dreamlover”
Dr. Watson’s online friend appeals to Holmes for help in order to find her missing lover.
2015 – Fiona Goodman performed as Sherlock Holmes for the New England Youth Theatre presentation of “Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Speckled Band.”
2015 – Sophia Dickey played Sherlock Holmes in “The Wild West Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Silent Harmonica”, an entry in a Carson City Film Contest. The required elements for each film were the use of footsteps as a sound effect, a harmonica as a prop, and the line “Give me one good reason why I should wear a dress.” Each team had one week to write, film, and edit their movie. This movie was 1st place winner for the “Under 16 years old” category.
View “The Wild West Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Silent Harmonica” at:
2015 – Olivia Petty and Kaylee Kim both played Sherlock Holmes in Alameda High School Little Theater, Alameda, California’s alternative versions of “Sherlock Holmes (and the mystery of the missing mystery)” . Olivia Petty’s version was titled “The Sherlock Holmes!”, while Kaylee Kim’s version was titled “The Magnificent Moriartys!”. “Sherlock Holmes, the greatest detective in London, has been active for ten years. In that time, he’s put away most of London’s underworld, and he’s become a celebrity at the same time due to the popular novels written by his friend Dr. John Watson. But success has its problems, and now Sherlock is bored. Furthermore, the public is losing interest without a worthwhile villain for the great detective. Can Sherlock and his friends find a worthwhile mystery on which to expend their energies? And is that actually a good idea . . .? Written by our very own Tyler Null and featuring a cast of amazing talented youths, this brand new musical comedy is great fun for all ages, and plays for Free (Donation Only) at the Alameda High School Little Theater (Corner of Central & Walnut).Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Missing Mystery has 2 different casts.”
2015-16 Nicola Dove is one of the three Sherlock Holmes performers in “Spontaneous Sherlock”. “Spontaneous Sherlock is an entirely improvised Sherlock Holmes comedy play, based on an audience suggestion of a title. Performed by three of Scotland’s most critically-acclaimed comedy improvisers, with live Victorian musical accompaniment.”
2016 – Christie Baugher and Priscilla McEver play Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson in “Herlock: A Sherlock Parody”. “Sherlock and Watson are on the hunt for a five-boroughs killer; but in the end, this is a parody, so the killer isn’t really revealed.”
See “Herlock: A Sherlock Parody” at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psE9H6EvEsU
2016 – Emma Pfaeffle did great work as Charlotte Holmes in “A Study in Charlotte”, a book trailer for the novel of the same name.
See Emma as Charlotte Holmes at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjIJFW8Uetw
2016 -Wendy Fries donned Sherlock’s coat and blue scarf and put on the deerstalker (w/ Steve Emecz as Watson) for the fundraiser called “Holmes and Watson Walk For Homelessness”
2016 – Lee Suhyun , a member of the Korean pop duo Akdong Musician (better known as AKMU), with her sibling Lee Chanhyuk, in the music video of the song “Re-Bye”, dressed in the full classical Sherlock Holmes garb.
View the music video “Re-Bye” at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST8O-AeY3Uo
2016 – Jackie Schram is the current Sherlock Holmes in the play “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”, an American play written and directed by Desiree Sanchez, performed by the Aquila Theatre company.
2016 -Kumiko Mendl dons the Sherlock Holmes garb for “Me and My Cat?” at the Bermuda Festival. “Praised as clever, charming and inventive, Me and My Cat? is a children’s theatre performance based on the popular book by award-winning Japanese author and illustrator, Satoshi Kitamura. Detective K sets off to try and solve a mystery with a little help from the Junior Detectives in the audience. Using inventive projection and heaps of fun, this is the perfect show for children aged six and older and their families.
2016 – Natalie Batchelder played Sherlock Holmes and Lily Gonzalez played John Watson in “Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Dog Napper” for The Acting Company, Yuba City, CA. Holmes & Watson attempt solve the mystery of the disappearing dogs in their neighborhood. Will they solve it? Will they find the dogs? Will they disappear themselves?
A Last Bow to The (Original) Baker Street Babes
When I concluded things with the fact that it has been all been done before, I’m not saying it can’t be done better. This essay began with Mrs. Nichols and the mustached ladies of Philomathian Club in 1899. They were a group of ladies limited in area to Barre, Vermont, and to having group meetings in one location. Give those female followers of the great detective the modern social media, Twitter, Tumblr, Podcasts, Facebook, etc., etc., and you might come up with a brilliant group such as the modern day, aptly named, ‘Baker Street Babes’. They describe themselves thusly; “The Baker Street Babes are an all-female group of Sherlock Holmes fans who talk about everything from canon to Cumberbatch, Charles Augustus Milverton to Jude Law, and dancing men to Jeremy Brett. We love Sherlock Holmes and we love having well informed, but also quite fun discussions about it. We’re all young and we’re all females, but we’re all die hard Sherlockians/Holmesian. It’s a demographic within the Sherlock Holmes fandom that is new and growing and doesn’t yet have a voice. We hope to become that voice and we want to prove that we’re not just going to coo over Robert Downey Jr and Benedict Cumberbatch, as lovely as they are, but that we know the canon and want to have discussions about it as well. We hope to help provide a bridge between the older and often intimidating world of Sherlockiana and the newer tech savvy generation of fans that are just discovering the Holmes stories.” The Baker Street Babes thanks to those social medias are a worldwide phenomenon.
Kristina Manente was the founder of the group. The members of the group that I’m aware of are, Lyndsay Faye, Lisa Burscheidt , Melinda Caric, Katherine Ryan, Taylor Blumenberg , Amy Thomas, Sarah Roy, Ashley Polasek , Maria Fleischhack, Elizabeth Giorgi, Katherine Ryan, Tamar Zeffren and Tiffany Knight. They have many honorary members too, since it appears if you are a guest on their podcasts you become a honorary member.
A more accurate and current list supplied by Kristina puts it like this:
Current BSBs: Kristina (Curly), Ardy, Kafers, Maria, Taylor, Lyndsay, Amy, Sarah, Melinda, Ashley, Sora, Tamar, and Tiffany. Retired BSBs: Marie, Jenn, Liz and Turk.
For podcasts by The Baker Street Babes, or fun and entertaining Sherlockian information, visit their website at: http://bakerstreetbabes.com
Addendum I – ‘Names Unknown’
Here are several Jane Doe Sherlocks and Watsons still to be identified. Can you help??
Addendum II – School Plays Actors Unknown
We might not know the actor’s names for these school productions, but isn’t it a wonderful thing that young girls today are given the opportunities to perform in lead Sherlockian roles.
2013 -Friends School of Minnesota -“The 7/8 Drama Club performed their play, “The Secret Case of Sherlock Holmes” by Craig Sodaro. This large cast of seventeen students had been rehearsing twice a week after school since the end of February. It was wonderful to see their hard work and talent come together in a day performance for the whole school and an evening performance for the community on Friday, April 26, 2013. The play was both a comedy and a mystery rolled into one. A brief plot summary: The play begins in the 1886 English laboratory of H.G. Wells (science fiction author of The Time Machine) where Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson are hired to look for a manuscript leant to Wells by Arthur Conan Doyle (author of the Sherlock Holmes stories). Holmes and Watson accidentally get transported into the future, present day England, by Wells’ time machine. They end up in a mental institution for people suffering from grandiose delusions and meet all sorts of interesting characters, including Queen Victoria, George Washington, two Marilyn Monroes, Count Dracula, Carrie Nation, and Emily Dickinson. A murder happens, which Holmes and Watson must then solve, and then figure out how to get back to the past.”
2013 – ST. Mark’s Girls Senior Secondary School, Meera Bagh, New Delhi, performed Sherlock Holmes Play Enactments. “The students of Class V performed famous Sherlock Holmes detective plays written and created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.The character of Sherlock Holmes was famous for its astute logical reasoning,ability to perform almost any disguise and his use of forensic science skills to solve difficult cases. It was quite involving and thrilling as one after another the mysteries unfolded and got solved with the criminals always getting their due.The students enjoyed enjoyed playing the different characters and it proved to be a fulfilling learning experience. The plays were – The Adventures of the Speckled Band, The Adventures of the Blue Carbuncle, Silver Blaze, The Adventures of the Cardboard Box and The Adventures of the Red Headed League. The Adventures of the Speckled Band was adjudged the best play.”
We’ll probably never know their names, but these just received lovely stills from an all-girls school in India only add to large number of female Holmes performers presented in this essay. Presenting these kind of numbers of female performers makes any suggestion a female Holmes is some kind of a novelty look stupid.
2015 – The UMS-Wright Middle School Drama Club of Mobile, AL., presents a play, The Hound of the Baskervilles: A Comic Thriller Starring Shirley Holmes and Jennie Watson.
Who are the next female Holmes and/or Dr. Watson female performers? One can only keep an eye out for future productions such as this one coming to Chicago soon.
“Miss Holmes”, “A new play inspired by the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, written by Christopher M. Walsh and directed by Paul S. Holmquist. Miss Sherlock Holmes, possessor of one of the greatest deductive minds of her generation, finds herself regularly incarcerated for behaviors deemed abnormal in a “respectable” lady. Miss Dorothy Watson returns to London with a hard-won medical degree, but no one will hire a female doctor. These unconventional women, trapped in an era that refuses to accept them, must forge a bond of trust and work together to uncover the deadly secrets surrounding a corrupt police investigator whose wives have a habit up turning up dead. A thrilling murder mystery that re-introduces familiar characters from the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle under a brand new light, in a world premiere production.” Scheduled performers are Katie McLean Hainsworth as Sherlock Holmes and Mandy Walsh as Dorothy Watson.
The End or in “The Case of The Female Holmes & Watson”: Just The Beginning.
Anyone wishing a downloadable pdf. file of all four parts of “The Original Baker Street Babes”, just drop me an e-mail at: howardostrom@gmail.com
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