Uncover the mystery of Sherlock Holmes at thrilling new Houston exhibit and stage show

Who is Sherlock Holmes? Such is the question posed this summer by Jeffrey Hatcher’s play Holmes and Watson, the final production of the Alley Theatre’s 17-18 season, but it’s also the mystery unraveled within the International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

Fans have been obsessed with the enigmatic detective since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first set him deerstalking into the world’s collective imagination 130 years ago. In film and television, he and his many contemporary incarnations are more popular than ever. So perhaps it’s no surprise that Houston is getting a cool summer of Sherlock.

But who is Sherlock Holmes and why do we in Houston continue to love him so? This was the mystery I set out to solve with a day devoted to murder, mayhem, and the master detective, ever ready to put the world to right.

The game's afoot
First up, I headed over the Museum District to discover the very dramatic HMNS exhibition unexpectedly had something of an immersive theater feel. Before entering I received a casebook I would need to use along my journey into the dark underbelly of Victorian crime fiction.

This HMNS exhibition contains manuscripts and artifacts of Doyle’s era which delve into the history of Holmes and give insights into Doyle’s influences, including the writings of Edgar Allen Poe and Doyle’s his real life medical training and studies under Dr. Joseph Bell. The majority of the galleries are organized around a new Holmes mystery, written by noted Doyle biographer Daniel Stashower. The guiding narrative invites visitors to help Holmes solve this latest diabolical case.

At times working my way through the exhibition did feel as if I had entered into a role playing theatrical piece. The casebook and displays invited me to attempt some observational exercises, documenting all I saw, solve puzzles and work through a series of problems and experiments. The layout of the galleries gives the impression that Holmes himself was always just a few steps in front of me, in the next room.

One of the most fun parts of the experience was watching kids, ages 5 to 65, diligently and sometimes gleefully filling out their casebooks and working through the steps to solve the mystery. Along the way, the exhibition rather sneakily teaches some Victorian history and forensic science all in the guise of putting us through an audition to become Baker Street Irregulars.

For fans of the latest onscreen versions of the detective, the exhibition presents several displays of props and costumes from the three most popular current incarnations of the mythology: Guy Ritchie’s steampunk Holmes films starring Robert Downey Jr., the BBC Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock and CBS’s Elementary.

Murder at the theater
Once I felt my observation skills finely honed, I headed over to the Alley to see if I could out deduce Hatcher’s Sherlock, only to find that in the play, it is the good doctor who must play detective.

Holmes and Watson, directed by Mark Shanahan, begins three years after the notorious Reichenbach Falls case, when Holmes and his archenemy Moriarty fell to their deaths. Or did they?

Dr. Watson (Jeremy Webb) is invited to a mysterious island asylum by a seemingly concerned, but perplexed Dr. Evans (Bruce Warren). Three inmates (Jay Sullivan, Dan Domingues, and Chris Hutchison) housed there all claim to be Sherlock Holmes. They all have a different story to tell about what happened that fateful night on the Falls and very different motives for telling their tales to Holmes’s best friend, confidant, and biographer. In turn, Watson must discover who is the real Sherlock Holmes, as danger lurks in every night shadow.

Of course, one of the allures of a good mystery, especially a Holmes play, is seeing if we can keep up with the game and figure out who done it, or in this case who is who, before a Sherlock or Watson explains it all.

In only 90 minutes, Hatcher, director Shanahan, and the cast create enough quick plot turns that audiences members might find themselves dizzy at the final reveals. Near the end, I did want to give my (imaginary) Baker Street Irregular badge a congratulatory polish because I did spot a few, though not all, of those plot twists leading up to the finale.

Whether I half-solved the case thanks to the training the International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes gave me earlier in the day, or it was the years of watching and reading so many versions of the great detective that made me a successful plot sleuth, who, but Holmes, can know.

Holmes and Watson runs at the Alley Theatre through July 22. The HMNS presents the ticketed International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes through September 30.

Dr. Watson must play detective. Jeremy Webb in the Alley Theatre's production of Holmes and Watson.

Photo by Christopher Diaz

Dr. Watson must play detective. Jeremy Webb in the Alley Theatre's production of Holmes and Watson.

museums theater

Best May Art

Floating worlds and immersive experiences top Houston's 9 best new art openings

Photo courtesy of Artechouse

“Rolling Stone Presents: Amplified, The Immersive Rock Experience!” opens at Artechouse in May.

After an blooming array of outdoor art installations the last few months, new art takes flight indoors for some rocking immersive shows and stunning exhibitions embracing the natural world. Art and science meet at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Houston Museum of Natural Science, while art and history merge at Rice Moody Center, the CAMH, and the Menil Collection. Houston-based artists also take the spotlight in several big shows across the city.

“EAT!!” at the Silos in Sawyer Yards (now through May 24)
This exhibition from local mixed-media artist Diane Gelman showcases the art of dining in a thoughtful-yet-whimsical new way. A feast for the eyes, this new solo exhibition features paintings, sculptures, and installations all about one of our favorite subjects, food. For Gelman, a registered and licensed dietitian, food is a celebration, served with joy, fostering social activity and positivity the world over. It is a universal language that promotes cross-cultural connection, and nourishes both our bodies and souls. “EAT!!” will encourage personal reflection and will be an entire smorgasbord for the senses. Gelman was awarded a 2025 Individual Artists Grant for EAT!! from the City of Houston.

“Audubon's Birds of America” at Houston Museum of Natural Science (now through September 1)
Perhaps one of the most famous naturalist books of all time, John James Audubon’s Birds of America series captivated its original 19th century audience with its spectacular, life-sized ornithological illustrations and helped to make birding the hobby that it is today. This fascinating exhibition at the HMNS gives us the chance to see these illustrations up close in all their colorful plumage. Originally organized by the National Museums Scotland, the exhibition includes 46 prints from their rare unbound collection of Birds of America. Along with these magnificent illustrations, the show will explore both the beauty of Audubon’s work and the complexities of his legacy, including Audubon as an adventurer and naturalist legend, as well as the more complex, problematic realities of his actual life.

“Floating World: A.A.Murakam” at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (now through September 5)
In the past few years, Houston has become home to so many immersive and interactive art spaces, but the MFAH will always be the pioneer when it comes to giving viewers the chance to play amid the art. Once again, the MFAH has captured art lightning in a bottle, this time literally, with the multi-gallery exhibition by the Tokyo and London-based A.A.Murakami, also know as Azusa Murakami, and Alexander Groves. Melding science, nature, and art, the duo create large-scale immersive landscapes working in mediums of light, fog, plasma, bubbles and sound. Each gallery holds work that is etherial, constantly transforming and will never be the same with each visit. Expect “Floating Worlds” to be a local social media art star by June.

“This is the first exhibition in a U. S. museum of the work of these remarkable artists,” noted MFAH director Gary Tinterow. “The term that A.A.Murakami has used to characterize their work, 'Ephemeral Tech,' aptly captures the uncanny nature of these mesmerizing environments, which rely on the latest innovations in artifice and science to evoke the timeless, fleeting moments of nature’s forces.”

“The Eternal Garden: Titanium Art by Aka Chen” at Houston Museum of Natural Science (now through September)
This exhibition of work by the renowned Taiwanese artist Aka Chen features 20 sculptures that uniquely combine jewelry artistry and Chinese brush painting using titanium and gemstones. Chen’s unique process involves sculpting the metal under water using precision tools originally designed for medical applications and working at extraordinarily high temperatures. Once shaped, the titanium undergoes an anodization process, revealing a mesmerizing iridescent shimmer. This intricate process culminates in the artful setting of carefully selected gemstones, each enhancing the inherent beauty of the titanium and elevating the pieces into works of art. Chen’s sculptures represent the most delicate objects and creatures in nature, like flowers, butterflies, and dragonflies, but are formed by some of the strongest natural material.

“Rolling Stone Presents: Amplified, The Immersive Rock Experience!” at Artechouse (May 15-August 31)
When the artful fun house that is Artechouse opened last June, the plan was always to rotate in new installations and exhibition, and this latest one will surely rock our art world. This immersive video experience takes audiences on a 50-minute rock ‘n’ roll journey through music history, dropping them into a 270-degree, floor-to-ceiling, 18K-resolution digital canvas and state-of-the-art surround sound. Putting viewers right in the midst of rock history and classic concerts, “Amplified” features rare footage from live performance and behind-the-scenes and candid artist moments, exclusive portrait sessions, album art, and posters. Artechouse says “Amplified delivers one of the most comprehensive collections of rock ‘n’ roll imagery ever assembled and includes the work of 500 photographers and film directors."

“The Space Between Looking and Loving: Francesca Fuchs and the de Menil House” at Menil Collection (May 23-November 2)
This show of the acclaimed Houston-based artist’s latest work was inspired by a 50-year-old letter that John de Menil wrote to Fuchs’s father, a German classical archeologist, when seeking his expertise on a sculpture in Menil’s private collection. Decades late, Fuchs found a photo of that piece in her father’s personal effects. “The Space Between” becomes Fuchs’s response to John’s unanswered letter, in the form of her painting various objects, including other art work, from the de Menil House. Through her own artwork, Fuchs reflects on the nature of everyday objects, attempting to capture their fundamental truths. For this series of paintings, Fuchs researched hundreds of photographs taken of the de Menil’s home and studied how artworks were moved through the interior spaces throughout the decades.

“Francesca’s sincere and inspired approach to researching the de Menil house and permanent collection has generated a refreshingly original and rich perspective on the lives of objects collected by John and Dominique de Menil,” described Menil Collection curator, Paul R. Davis. “Her enduring pursuit of painting compels us to think about the layered and fungible meanings of everyday objects.”

“Figurative Histories” at Rice Moody Center (May 30-August 16)
For their dynamic summer exhibition, the Moody Center celebrates Texas-based artists Letitia Huckaby, Earlie Hudnall, Jr., David McGee, and Delita Martin. Besides hailing from the Lone Star State, these four artists also create figurative artwork influenced by their personal histories and socio-political themes. Their work often depicts the human body and uses images from the past to understand the present. Many of the pieces in the exhibition also explore historical absences, especially the lack of Black representation in traditional Western art.

The exhibition will include photographs by Earlie Hudnall, Jr. of daily life in Houston’s Third, Fourth, and Fifth Wards, eight portraits from Letitia Huckaby’s acclaimed “A Living Requiem” series. The show will also feature seven large-scale watercolors from David McGee’s “Avenging Angels” series, more than one hundred works on paper from his “Tarot Cards” series, and brand new works by Delita Martin, drawn from her “Song Keepers” series, which honors the presence of Black women in history, memory, and spirit.

“Clément Cogitore: Collective Memories” at Rice Moody Center (May 30-August 16)
Presented in adjacent galleries, these two video installations from the renowned French artist, director, and photographer, Cogitore, create a dialogue with each other about the nature of community performance and collective energy. The first film, Les Indes galantes, offers a contemporary version of the the 18th century Baroque opera ballet by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. In this reimagining, classic ballet is replaced with krumping, a dance style popularized in South Central Los Angeles in the early 2000s. The second video, Morgestraich (2022), pays tribute to the Carnival of Basel, an event held in Switzerland since the Middle Ages. The piece features elaborately dressed carnival participants against a dark backdrop, walking continually toward an invisible crowd.

“Tomashi Jackson: Across the Universe” at Contemporary Arts Museum (May 30-March 29, 2026)
This mid-career survey of the award-winning, Houston-born artist will showcase nearly a decade of her multidisciplinary work, including painting, printmaking, video, photography, fiber, and sculpture. Jackson creates much of her art through a research process grounded in interviews with local community members, historians, and advocates. Jackson weaves together color theory and these discovered histories to explore themes of land, labor, and law — culminating in vibrant pieces that celebrate the empowerment of disenfranchised groups within American democracy.

“My family is a product of the Great Migration route from Texas to California and I am thrilled to bring Across The Universe to Contemporary Arts Museum Houston,” Jackson said in a statement. “This opportunity to share more than 10 years of my work visualizing public narratives across disciplines to the city of my birth is a long held dream come true.”

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Photo courtesy of Artechouse

“Rolling Stone Presents: Amplified, The Immersive Rock Experience!” opens at Artechouse in May.