Crime appears to be running rampant on Laguna Canyon Road lately and it seems only century-old detectives can combat it.

In 2023, the new management at Laguna Playhouse imported Hercule Poirot for its first show; Agatha Christie’s Belgian sleuth will return in June.

Last summer, Sherlock Holmes unsnarled a dark-themed tangle with Dr. Watson at its center. Now Sherlock is back (minus Watson, off to Argentina) in the fun albeit uneven “The Remarkable Mister Holmes.”

If not remarkable, at least a bit startling is that this outing finds Holmes in a 20-song musical comedy and, even more unexpectedly, assisted in his sleuthing by a female partner.

With multiple murders to solve — three corpses cheerfully pile up in the extended opening title song alone — he’s accompanied, willingly or not, by Watson’s long-lost sister Sheila.

Sheila proves less a bumbling Watson than an observant detective wannabe, matching Holmes’ deductive powers, impressing and even — another Sherlockian surprise — emotionally attracting the steely, detached logician.

Co-written by Omri Schein and the theater’s artistic director David Ellenstein, who also directs, the show’s overall vibe is frothy and giddy.

There’s also a decidedly English music hall “jolly ‘oliday” tone at play in the numbers composed by Daniel M. Lincoln with lyrics by Schein.

But perhaps a bit too much fun was being had in the original writing room, where an impartial editor might have been welcome?

The plot veers through various sidetracking convolutions and there is more exposition than necessary tied to supplementary characters. This bogs the storyline down during the production’s early build-ups and a too slow wind down.

While there is a buoyant score, seemingly fulfilling a need to outfit at least one number per cast member among the nine-actor cast, some songs sidetrack the proceedings.

The most notable derailment is an early second act number “A Study in Hudson.”

Here, eternally patient landlady Mrs. Hudson bizarrely and unaccountably attempts to seduce Holmes, likely literature’s most confirmed bachelor. While this number kinda makes sense once the murderer is revealed, it makes for a highly weird choice in the moment.

A more agreeable, detectable musical note is a Lerner and Loewe homage running through the music and lyrics.

In the song, “A Watson of a Different Kind,” Sherlock and Sheila spar, a la Henry Higgins encountering Eliza Doolittle, and then, in the solo numbers “Impressive” and “Sherlock’s Dilemma,” each evaluates the other’s shortcomings.

(That “My Fair Lady” motif also emerges visually in a crowd scene when an extremely familiar looking flower girl offers a bouquet for sale in a busy square.)

So, at this point, an elementary question: is the show worth seeing? Yes, my dear readers, for some of the attributes on display.

Playing this manner of Sherlock, Paul Slade Smith has a curious construction to inhabit. A Broadway veteran — small world, he was in Lincoln Center’s production of “My Fair Lady” — instead of the usual imperious and exacting Holmes, the role requires at points for the actor to manifest peevish indecision. Again, strikingly Higgins-like.

Smith brings urgency as Holmes on the hunt for the killer, but life at 221B Baker Street also finds him unaccountably required to bounce around and shake maracas … range is certainly required.

There is plenty of fun for the show’s actresses.

Co-lead Shannon O’Boyle’s Sheila makes for Holmes’ formidable sparring partner. Her role doesn’t ask for attention-getting tics, so O’Boyle centers the action by conveying practical reason in a no-nonsense, yet appealing manner.

Diminutive Darcy Rose Byrnes makes for a terrific waif of a hotel maid, her presence central to the action. Oozing charm, which can be in turns both goofy and soulful, she is in terrific voice in her solo, “Phyllis’s Song.”

Amping up plenty of shady-countess-schtick, and playing a character with plenty to hide, Katie Karel sports false eyelashes that seem to extend past the wings and wields a Germany-meets-Eastern European accent thick enough to stir goulash.

A veteran talent, Alby Potts, is the music director and leads the offstage instrumental quartet in suitably well-played accompaniment.

Separately, violinist Steve Chiu is silhouetted behind the opening curtain and, wearing a deerstalker cap, offers a nice violin passage to kick off the proceedings.

The production as a whole is well-mounted, with the big cast handsomely dressed by costume designer Alex Jaeger.

Appropriately goofy hair and wig designs, when called for, are supplied by Peter Herman while Stephen Gifford’s period scenic designs support the on-stage doings admirably.

Thus, the game’s afoot in Laguna Beach and it’s worth joining in.

‘The Remarkable Mister Holmes’

Rating: 3 stars (from a possible 4)

Where: Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach

When: Through March 30. 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 7:30 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 5:30 p.m. Sundays. There will be an additional performance at 2 p.m. on Thursday, March 20. There will be no performances at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 28 and at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 30.

Tickets: $51-100

Information: 949-497-2787; lagunaplayhouse.com

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