A deerstalker, a chair leg and an ensemble crouched in a huddle: the first rehearsal photos for Sherlock Holmes and the Twelve Days of Christmas catch Bo Poraj and Marc Antolin getting Holmes and Watson ready for Alexandra Palace Theatre.
Marc Brenner's pictures from the rehearsal room were released today (11 November), and they show the company of Sherlock Holmes and the Twelve Days of Christmas deep in the comedy. Bo Poraj plays the great detective, and Olivier Award nominee Marc Antolin is his Dr. Watson.
The frames move fast. Poraj stands in the deerstalker beside John Ramm, who plays Lestrade. Antolin lies flat on the floor with his cheek against the leg of an armchair. Charlie Russell, cast as Athena Faversham, leads the company across the room, and the ensemble bunch together low to the ground, every face turned the same way.
The show is a new musical comedy by Humphrey Ker and David Reed, with songs by Tim Rice and Howard Goodall, and Phillip Breen directs. It is set in the theatres of Victorian London's West End at Christmas, where actors keep dying in the middle of their scenes. Holmes finds the killings follow the pattern of the carol The Twelve Days of Christmas, and has to unmask the murderer before more bodies pile up, in a case that could prove his last.
Ker and Reed both performed in the original company of The Penny Dreadfuls, on stage and in its radio series and plays. The production is the Birmingham Rep's, presented in London by Eleanor Lloyd Productions, Eilene Davidson Productions and Heartaches Limited. The same producers brought Mark Gatiss's A Christmas Carol to the Alexandra Palace Theatre over several Christmas seasons. This is the new show's first festive season in London.
The full company, announced at the end of October, has Poraj and Antolin alongside Jonnie Broadbent as Arthur Stone, Annabel Brook as Ernie, Wayne Cater as Wotan, Mia Jerome as Queen Victoria, Olivia-Faith Kamau as Estella Bottle, Mia Overfield as Clifford, Vivien Parry as Mrs Hudson, Emily Pithon as Professor Murray, Ramm as Lestrade, John-Luke Roberts as Fafner and Russell as Athena Faversham. Edward Bourne and Margot Jardine are the swings.
Behind them are designer Mark Bailey, lighting designer Anna Watson, sound designer Luke Swaffield for Autograph Sound, choreographer and movement director Georgina Lamb, fight director Renny Krupinski, illusionists Chris Fisher and Dr Will Houstoun, casting director Helena Palmer CDG, musical director Leo Munby and orchestra manager Matthew French.
Sherlock Holmes and the Twelve Days of Christmas runs at the Alexandra Palace Theatre from 24 November 2026 to 17 January 2027, with press night on 1 December 2026. Performances are at 7.30pm from Tuesday to Saturday and at 5pm on Sunday, with matinee times varying, and tickets start at £20. A captioned performance is scheduled for 3 January 2027 at 1pm, and an audio-described one for 12 January 2027 at 7.30pm.
