Todd Waite Retires from the Alley Theatre with Farewell Performance as Sherlock Holmes
Beloved actor ends 25-year run in Baskerville.
Actor Todd Waite says goodbye to his signature character in Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery this month. After performing in 135 productions with the Alley Theatre over the last 25 years, Waite is retiring as a member of the resident company.
Now 65, Waite once said he didn’t want to appear as an elderly Sherlock. While he loves the character and enjoys exploring the role, he’s afraid the audience would reject a doddering detective.
“My concern is the audience starting to go ‘Really, gurrrrl?’” he says, laughing.
Instead, he’s leaving both the character and the theater while at the top of his game.
“It’s a joyous decision to leave when you still feel appreciated and appreciative of the situation that you have, and still love the people you work with,” he says. “There’s not a single moment at the Alley that makes me want to leave. It’s just that my body wants a little more time between projects. But you can’t tell what the future will bring. If someone wants to write a wonderful Sherlock where I appear as a ghost, I’d be willing to do that,” he smiles.
Openly gay, Waite first came to the Alley when his then-romantic partner was in rehearsals for the musical Jekyll and Hyde. While visiting the theater from his native Canada, where the couple were based, Waite met Edward Albee, a frequent Alley collaborator. Albee was in production for his dramatic play Three Tall Women.
“I thought, this theater is doing a massive musical and an Albee at the same time. I was so impressed that I read for company member and director James Black.”
In 1999, Waite made his Alley debut in As Bees in Honey Drown, with Black directing.
Roles in Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia and the one-man Christmas show The Santaland Diaries quickly followed.
“I thought I was in heaven,” says Waite.
Santaland, which was an instant hit with audiences, ran for eight seasons.
“In Santaland Diaries, I saw the same people in the audience year after year,” he says. “I can’t tell you how much I loved that!”
“It’s a joyous decision to leave when you still feel appreciated and appreciative of the situation that you have, and still love the people you work with.” —Todd Waite
More recently, Waite was seen in the Alley Theatre’s productions of the Agatha Christie classics And Then There Were None and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
As Sherlock, Waite won even more legions of fans. Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery marks the sixth time that Waite appears as the famed detective.
“Each Sherlock is a little different, because the scripts are different. What’s common to all the Sherlocks is a sprung coil in the mind that’s ready to go into the physical,” Waite notes.
Adapted by Ken Ludwig and directed by Eleanor Holdridge, Baskerville is billed as a suspenseful comedy.
“This play is a love letter to actors!” Waite says. “I’m going out with a Sherlock that is also tongue in cheek. Ken is really a master at comedy. He’s a really wonderful person of the theater, and he loves actors.
“This show doesn’t take the Sherlocks of the past too seriously. As much as I’ve loved doing them, they’re not Shakespeare. This play is a platform for melodramatic fun. This is among the most fun of any of the shows our audiences will see.”
The Baskerville cast includes Christopher Salazar as Dr. Watson. Dylan Godwin, Elizabeth Bunch, and Brandon Hearnsberger also appear, each performing between 8 and 16 characters.
“The actors at the Alley maybe don’t get credit for the fact that they are doing a role while they are learning another one,” Waite says. “Dylan Godwin will have been rehearsing our play for two weeks while performing in The Glass Menagerie. That’s what we do, as opposed to six weeks of rehearsal, an out-of-town run, and then an opening. Yeah, by then you’d better have a hit! I want to be a Lamborghini that directors and playwrights can take anywhere,” he declares. “Then I can say Yeah, watch me; I can do that. So rarely at this point in a career do people push you. And all I want to do is get better. I just want to get better, better, and better. Artistic director Rob Melrose is determined to do that with us.
“It’s fun to go out on a show that showcases everything the Alley can do. Thankfully, the Alley has the budget to hire the designers and build their ideas. This is a crazy, massive showcase of not only actors but costumes, lighting, and a massive set.”
Waite credits Alley audiences and its board members’ enthusiastic support for the theater’s ability to mount such artistically and technically complicated shows.
“Our audiences know theater,” Waite says. “Our board members know theater. They care about theater and bring their money to the table to support it. There’s a joy to giving money that’s more than spending and getting. It has its own reward.”
Waite’s retirement plans include some travel, lots of relaxation, and a few select projects. There are, however, no plans to move back to Canada.
“I’m going to retire here because I never want to be far away from hobbling into a Houston coffee shop and having someone say, ‘We really appreciate your work.’ The audiences, the Alley—it’s family. And it’s here.
WHAT: Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery
WHEN: April 4–May 4, 2025
WHERE: Alley Theatre, 510 Texas Ave.
INFO: call 713-220-5700 or visit alleytheatre.org.
