After a 35-year run of dishing out murder along with dinner, Sleuths Mystery Dinner Shows announced this weekend it will close its International Drive theater for good Nov. 4

“We loved providing Orlando with laughs for over three decades and are grateful for all of our guests who came to play with us to help solve tens of thousands of murder mysteries,” the company posted on its social-media sites.

Manager Donna Ernbro said every effort had been made to keep the business — thought to be the longest-running mystery dinner theater in the country — going, and the decision to close was “heart-wrenching.”

“I think, really, it’s the economics of the world, the cost to keep things running,” she said. “If there was any way we could have carried on, we would have carried on.”

Members of Orlando’s arts community, many of whom have worked at the theater over the years, reacted with dismay.

“Very sorry to learn of the loss of yet another Central Florida theatrical organization that provided entertainment for many thousands of audience members and employment for many hundreds of artists,” wrote producer DJ Salisbury on Facebook.

“So sad,” posted actor Sarah Lockard. “So many great memories with friends there.”

Meanwhile, Capone’s Dinner and Show — the gangster-themed dinner theater that opened in 1992 and closed its Kissimmee location in 2024 — is back in business with a new location on International Drive. The mobsters and their “dolls” started singing again this weekend for the first time in more than a year.

“I’ve missed this show so much, and I can’t wait to see all the success that our new location will bring,” wrote actor Jake Aboyoun, who performs as Fingers Salvatorio in the musical.

Capone’s Dinner & Show, pictured in 2004, is back in business in a new International Drive location. (Orlando Sentinel file photo)

The Capone’s website, at alcapones.com, is taking reservations into next year.

At Sleuths, however, there are only nine more opportunities to solve a comic mystery over a meal. Tickets are available at sleuths.com/shows.

Actor David Almeida, who has worked at Sleuths since 1997, said the theater provided unique opportunities for creativity.

“I will miss the creative freedom that we have. We’ve always been encouraged to give our own spin to the characters,” he said. “It empowers us to do what we know we can do best.”

But beyond the artistic satisfaction, Sleuths also provided a steady stream of income for many actors, helping to keep a theatrical talent pool in Central Florida.

“Celestial Manor” was one of the shows performed at Sleuths Mystery Dinner Shows over the years. (Orlando Sentinel file photo)

“It seems like most actors in town, if they weren’t at Sleuths, had been there at some time or were going to be,” said Almeida, who has logged more than 1,400 performances with the theater — playing 32 different roles in 16 different shows.

For most actors, Sleuths was a part-time job to supplement other gigs — “the best second job to have,” Almeida said — but it was also a crucial help during lean times.

Actor Sarah-lee Dobbs recalled a time she was between theme-park contracts and was given extra work at Sleuths to help tide her over. A British native, Sleuths provided Dobbs her first paying job in the United States some 20-plus years ago. It came as a godsend in the chaos of moving to a new country.

“I needed to find my people, I needed to act,” she said. “Sleuths saved me.”

It also challenged her, as it would many others: The actors, in character, mingle with guests during performances, meaning they have to be skilled at improvisation.

Sleuths Mystery Dinner Shows moved to 8267 International Drive in 2005. (Orlando Sentinel file photo)

“It was quite daunting for me at first,” Dobbs said. “Without a doubt, that place made me a much better comedic actor.”

Sleuths was also a place where younger actors could pick up valuable skills from the veterans.

Performing there was also Almeida’s first professional gig, “and I found myself alongside people who were full-time Equity [union] performers at Disney,” he said. “Being a kid in my 20s, absolutely, you couldn’t help but absorb and learn and take those skills with you.”

The long tenures of many actors there, alongside the comings and goings of others across generations, made for a family feeling, Almeida said — appropriate for what started as a mom-and-pop business.

Sleuths Mystery Dinner Shows was founded by Gary and Sandy Redmond in 1990. Its first location was in a strip mall on Republic Drive, now Universal Boulevard, before the business relocated to its current location at 8267 International Drive, near the Orlando Eye giant Ferris wheel. Gary wrote the scripts for the original mysteries — the theater performs different titles in rotation — and manager Ernbro is Sandy’s daughter.

Dobbs recalled the way the Redmonds would splash out every year on an “epic” holiday party for current and former staff and actors.

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“Sandy and Gary would just lay out the most magnificent food for us, an open bar and … it would go mental,” said Dobbs, remembering costumes, karaoke, prizes and more. “4 in the morning and we’d still be going.”

There had been signs that, as with many theaters, business had been slow since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the entertainment industry in 2020.

Almeida noticed smaller crowds lately and a demographic shift in audiences from new tourists to faithful repeat guests.

“We wish that we could stay but as a small family-owned and operated theatre, we simply can’t compete with the multimillion-dollar theme parks and venues in the Orlando area,” the business’s announcement read.

In February, the owners of the family business put the property on the market, asking $11.9 million and hoping a developer would transform the building into a hotel — with space still available for Sleuths.

Ernbro said the plan is still to either sell or lease out the building, but not with Sleuths in the mix.

She tearfully informed the working cast and staff of the closure after Friday’s performance, and others were notified by a message later that night. The decision to close in a matter of weeks was for business reasons, she said, because it would make things easier to wind down operations by the end of the calendar year.

“Lord Mansfield’s Fox Hunt,” pictured with a 2012 cast, will be one of the final productions featured at Sleuths Mystery Dinner Shows. (Orlando Sentinel file photo)

“We are devastated,” she said. “We had hoped to hang on for longer.”

Still, she reflected on the many happy times the business had seen: Romances started, proposals accepted, marriages celebrated, babies born — both among the staff and audience members.

“Guests who were here as children are now bringing their own kids,” she said. “How many marriages wouldn’t have happened without Sleuths?”

An adult guest recently pulled out a photo of himself as a child attending a Sleuths performance to show Almeida — who recognized a 20-year-younger version of himself in the cast that night.

“We have people tell us the only reason they vacation in Orlando is to come here,” he said.

Ernbro, who has worked at Sleuths for its whole existence, said she doesn’t know “what life looks like without it.” But she’s determined to focus on the happy times during these last couple of weeks.

“Every show has a beginning and an end,” she said. “It has been a joy, an absolute joy.”

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