Baker Street (musical)

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This article is about the 1965 musical. For other uses, see Baker Street (disambiguation).

Original Broadway Production
Baker Street
Original Cast Recording
Music	Marian Grudeff and Raymond Jessel
Lyrics	Marian Grudeff and Raymond Jessel
Book	Jerome Coopersmith
Theatre	Broadway Theatre and Martin Beck Theatre
Opened	February 16, 1965
Closed	November 14, 1965
Producer(s)	Alexander H. Cohen
Director	Harold Prince
Choreographer	Lee Becker Theodore
Scenic designer	Oliver Smith
Costume designer	Motley

Baker Street was a Broadway musical with a book by Jerome Coopersmith and music and lyrics by Marian Grudeff and Raymond Jessel. It was loosely based on the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle.

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 veered from Conan Doyle's work in that Irene Adler became an associate of Holmes rather than his opponent, thus allowing an element of romance between them.

After six previews, the Hal Prince-directed show opened on February 16, 1965 at the Broadway Theatre, where it ran for nine months. It then transferred to the Majestic, but closed after only eleven days, for a total of 311 performances.

The opening night cast included Fritz Weaver, Peter Sallis, Martin Gabel, Inga Swenson, Virginia Vestoff and, in very small supporting roles, Tommy Tune and Christopher Walken in their Broadway debuts.

Producer Alexander H. Cohen felt the show as such an event that he announced, prior to the opening, men would not be admitted unless they were clad in jackets and ties, and women would be allowed in only if they wore dresses. This policy quickly changed once the mixed reviews were in and Cohen realized he needed all the business he could get, no matter how it was attired.