McCarter Theatre, New Jersey Repertory Company

Ken Ludwig version of Sherlock Holmes at McCarter Theatre

Ken Ludwig's "Baskerville" with, from left, Jane Pfitsch, Gregory Wooddell as Sherlock Holmes and Stanley Bahorek opens at McCarter Theatre in Princeton (Photo by Margot Schulman.)
Ken Ludwig’s “Baskerville” with, from left, Jane Pfitsch, Gregory Wooddell as Sherlock Holmes and Stanley Bahorek, opens March 10  at McCarter Theatre in Princeton. (Photo by Margot Schulman.)

Two regional theaters in New Jersey are opening world premieres in the next couple of weeks. And one thing we know for sure, there definitely is no such thing as too much Sherlock Holmes.

McCarter Theatre in Princeton is hosting the world premiere of Ken Ludwig’s  “Baskerville, A Sherlock Holmes Mystery,” his take on Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskerville.” You can count on lots of laughs from the playwright who also penned “Lend Me a Tenor” and “Moon Over Buffalo.” Performances March 10-29. Buy tickets here.

Directed by Amanda Dehnert, the “murderously funny adventure” features five actors — Holmes and Watson, with the other three actors playing 43 roles — as one by one the male heirs to the Baskerville estate are killed off. (Sounds a bit like “The 39 Steps” homage to  Hitchcock’s movies with few actors portraying many characters.)

“In a way, the play is meant to be as much about the theater as it is about these two guys named Holmes and Watson,” Ludwig says in this video.

The comedy is a co-production with the Arena Stage in Washington DC, where it was staged in January to good reviews.

‘The M Spot’ in Long Branch

At the New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch “The M Spot,” a comedy by actor Michael Tucker, is about a married couple “looking for something to recapture the former vitality of their marriage.” So they decide on a new-age spa with nude massages.   Tucker’s real-life wife Jill Eikenberry, 68, co-stars and her 70-year-old husband and her character isn’t as thrilled about the idea.

Old people nudity. That’s not something you see every day. Both actors probably are best known for stints in TV’s “L.A. Law” series. Buy tickets here. To read an interview with Tucker talking about the play, which runs from Feb. 26-March 29, click here.

image From left, Pheonix Vaughn, Jill Eikenberry , and Michael Tucke in "The M Spot." Directed by Evan Bergman, the play begins performances Feb. 26 in Long Branch, NJ. (Photo SuzAnne Barabas)
From left, Pheonix Vaughn, Jill Eikenberry, and Michael Tucker in “The M Spot.” Directed by Evan Bergman, the play begins performances Feb. 26 in Long Branch, NJ. (Photo SuzAnne Barabas)