Baker Street (musical)

Baker Street
A Musical Adventure of Sherlock Holmes
Original Cast Recording [CD reissue]
Music	Marian Grudeff, Raymond Jessel and Jerry Bock
Lyrics	Marian Grudeff, Raymond Jessel and Sheldon Harnick
Book	Jerome Coopersmith
Basis	The Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Productions	1965 Broadway

Baker Street is a musical with a book by Jerome Coopersmith and music and lyrics by Marian Grudeff and Raymond Jessel.

Loosely based on the Sherlock Holmes story A Scandal in Bohemia by Arthur Conan Doyle, it is set in and around London in 1897, the year in which England celebrated the Diamond Jubilee of the reign of Queen Victoria (an event marked by an elaborate royal procession depicted by Bil Baird's marionettes). The musical veers from Conan Doyle's work in that Irene Adler becomes an associate of Holmes rather than his opponent, thus allowing an element of romance between the two.

Because of problems the show went through during out of town tryouts, Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, the successful composing team of Fiddler on the Roof were brought in to contribute additional songs including "Cold Clear World" and "I Shall Miss You." They also wrote "I'm In London Again" which was the first number for Irene Adler, but after opening night, this number (which can be heard on the cast album) was dropped and replaced by another Bock-Harnick composition, "Buffalo Belle" which had Irene Adler performing an elaborate Wild West number.

After six previews, the Broadway production, directed by Hal Prince, opened on February 16, 1965 at The Broadway Theatre, where it ran for nine months. It then transferred to the Martin Beck Theatre (now the Al Hirschfeld Theatre), but closed after only eleven days, for a total of 311 performances.