Charles Dickens is a perennial favorite, not just with readers but with theatre audiences too, as Simon Callow's one-man show about the Great Man has proved.
Now Dickens' work is to get another outing, in Rupert Holmes' musical, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, based on Dickens' last (and uncompleted) novel. The musical won the 1986 Tony Award for Best Musical when it played Broadway in a production that starred Betty Buckley in the title role.
The Bridewell is located near the site of the old Bridewell Palace, which in Dickens' youth was still used as a prison, along with other nearby jails like Newgate.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood opens Aug. 6 and runs through Aug. 23. The musical promises audience participation to decide the ending —which Dickens' early death, while writing it, robbed us of. Presented by the Music Hall Royale, it is from the moment that Dickens put down his pen forever that the audience is asked to decide whether a crime has been committed, if so who did it, and which of the characters will finish the play as lovers.