Gasps, Laughs and Thrills: Comedy Mysteries To Keep Audiences Laughing

Featuring all the thrills of classic whodunits along with the jokes and lightning-quick pace of screwballs, these comedy mysteries are sure to keep audiences spellbound. Not only will people desperately want to know who did it, but they’ll be laughing the whole time as they find out how. Perfect for a cozy winter’s eve, a shadowy fall night, or even a carefree summer show, these genre-blending delights will connect with crowds no matter the season.

All the Better to Kill You With by Fred Carmichael (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 5m)
Another love triangle causes another murder in this work from the master of comedic mysteries Fred Carmichael. In a wintry, shadowy New England home, the age-old story becomes a tale of intrigue and jealousy, an intricate interweaving of truth and deception. It’s not whodunit, but how.

An Old-Fashioned Family Murder by Joe DiPietro (US/UK) 
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 3m) 
It’s a dark and stormy night at the mansion of elderly Colonel Claythorne, and the pompous murder-mystery author Arthur Whittington is holding court with the Colonel’s family. When Whittington shares the news that the Colonel has modified his will to cut out one of his daughters – though which daughter won’t be revealed until the Colonel’s death – tempers flare. By the time Mrs. Peck’s son, (junior) Detective Paul Peck arrives at the house, there’s been a murder, and everyone is a suspect.

Any Number Can Die by Fred Carmichael (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 7m)
A hilarious take on the mystery plays of the Twenties complete with sliding panels, robed figures and wills being read at midnight. Four ingenious murders take place in an island mansion as a pair of elderly detectives set to work on their first case. Unexpected guests, a cryptic poem and a missing fortune all add to an intricate and hilarious mystery.

Biz Town by Rachel Bublitz (US/UK) 
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 36 any) 
An in-class “adult life” simulation goes very wrong after students throw the rules out and turn to lying, cheating, stealing and kidnapping to one-up their classmates. The bottom line is that the kid with the most heart points gets to pick the toppings for their pizza party, and that’s a prize worth playing dirty to win. One detective tries to uncover the criminals and set the town on a better path, but maybe Biz Town just can’t play nice. Biz Town is also available in a One-Act Version (US).

Clue by Johnathan Lynn, Sandy Rustin, Hunter Forster, Eric Price and Michael Holland (US) 
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 6m) 
It’s a dark and stormy night, and you’ve been invited to a very unusual dinner party. Each of the guests has an alias, the butler offers a variety of weapons, and the host is, well… dead. So whodunit? Based on the cult classic film and the popular board game, Clue is a madcap comedy that will keep you guessing until the final twist. Also available in a High School Edition (US)!

Cluedo by Johnathan Lynn, Sandy Rustin, Hunter Forster, Eric Price, Michael Holland and Mark Bell (UK) 
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 6m) 
It’s a dark and stormy night, and you’ve been invited to a very unusual dinner party. Each of the guests has an alias, the butler offers a variety of weapons, and the host is, well… dead. So whodunit? Based on the cult classic film and the popular board game, Cluedo is a madcap comedy that will keep you guessing until the final twist. For the UK version, the script has been adapted to take into account a British setting and mystery. 

Deadline by Marcia Kash and Douglas E. Hughes (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 6 any) 
Just as they are about to give up on their careers, a pair of struggling playwrights find out that their mentor, the most celebrated murder mystery writer since Agatha Christie, has just died with the script to his upcoming Broadway thriller left unfinished. Tasked with completing his work in under a week, Mara and Don jump into the story – but once they begin digging into the world of the play, they quickly find themselves trapped inside it.

Deadline by Don Zolidis (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 3m, 5 any) 
When eight mystery writers arrive at a legendary writer’s fog-shrouded island mansion in the North Atlantic, they think they’re ready for the Deadline Challenge – twenty-four restful hours to write as much of their new novel as possible. But the Deadline Challenge is anything but restful. In reality, the writers are brought together to solve a murder – the victim yet be determined, and the killer yet to strike.

Death by Design by Rob Urbinati (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4w, 4m)
What happens when you mix the brilliant wit of Noël Coward with the intricate plotting of Agatha Christie? Set during a weekend in an English country manor in 1932, Death by Design is a hilarious, delightful and mysterious mash-up of two of the greatest English writers of all time.

Death by Design: A Comedy with Songs and Murder by Rob Urbinati and Peter Mills (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play with Music, Comedy / 4w, 4m)
This hilarious, delightful play with music combines the brilliant wit of Noël Coward with the intrigue and plotting of Agatha Christie as a motley assortment of guests descend upon the country home of a married playwright and actress.

Devil Boys from Beyond by Buddy Thomas, Kenneth Elliott and Drew Fornarola (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4w, 4m)
Flying Saucers! Backstabbing Bitches! Muscle Hunks and Men in Pumps! Wake up and smell the alien invasion in this outrageous comedy by the author of the smash off-Broadway hit play The Crumple Zone.

Die Mommie Die! by Charles Busch (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 3m)
Newly revised, this hilarious comic melodrama evokes the 1960s “Grande Dame Guignol” movie thrillers that featured such aging cinematic icons as Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner and Susan Hayward.

Done to Death by Fred Carmichael (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 8w, 8m)
In this crowd-pleasing comedy, once-famous mystery writers involve the audience as they apply their unique methods to solving a surprising array of murders.

Drop Dead! by Billy van Zandt and Jane Milmore (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 7m)
A cast of has-been actors plan to revive their careers in “Drop Dead!,” a potboiler murder mystery directed by “Wonder Child of the Broadway Stage” Victor Le Pewe (a psychotic, eye-twitching megalomaniac). But when the murders and mysteries exceed those in the script, the thespians must save the show, their careers and their lives!

Dying for Theatre by Joe Simonelli (US) 
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 4m) 
In this fast-paced comedy mystery, actors are inexplicably dying in a small community theater outside of Nyack, New York. Who is systematically murdering the Lakeview Players? It’s up to the theatre’s overworked resident playwright, Sal Fatone, to find out! 

Four Old Broads on the High Seas by Leslie Kimbell (US/UK) 
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 6m) 
Get ready to set sail with your favorite Old Broads. Yes, they’re back again and ready for a Sassy Seniors cruise to the Bahamas. Beatrice is determined to have her pick of ALL the eligible men on the ship but Maude, fresh from her win at The Miss Magnolia Senior Citizen Pageant, plans on being her biggest competition. Wedding bells are ringing for Sam and Imogene… maybe. Eaddy just wants to know what all the fuss is about up on the topless sun deck. Throw in a murder mystery, a fabulous drag queen and a crazy costume party, and you’re in for a laugh-a-minute, side-splitting laugh-out-loud night of fun. 

How to Get Away with a Murder Mystery by Don Zolidis (US/UK) 
(Short Play, Comedy / 9 any) 
Five mysterious color-coded guests. A mansion. A murder. Can the killer get away with it? And how will the sleuths bring them to justice? A handy guide for how to escape the law when you just happen to be a prime suspect of a mysterious murder.

Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery by Ken Ludwig (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 1w, 4m)
Get your deerstalker cap on – the play’s afoot! From the award-winning mastermind of mayhem Ken Ludwig comes a fast-paced comedy about everyone’s favorite detective solving his most notorious case. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson must crack the mystery of “The Hound of the Baskervilles” before a family curse dooms its newest heir.

2023 Cleveland Playhouse production of Ken Ludwig’s Moriarty (Roger Mastroianni)

Ken Ludwig’s Moriarty by Ken Ludwig (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 3m)
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are back on the case! An investigation into the Bohemian king’s stolen letters cascades into an international mystery filled with spies, blackmail and intrigue. With world peace at stake, Holmes and Watson join forces with American actress Irene Adler to take down cunning criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty and his network of devious henchmen. Five actors play over 40 roles in this adventure that has danger – and laughter – around every corner.

Ken Ludwig’s The Game’s Afoot by Ken Ludwig (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 3m)
It is December 1936 and Broadway star William Gillette, admired the world over for his leading role in the play Sherlock Holmes, has invited his fellow cast members to his Connecticut castle for a weekend of revelry. But when one of the guests is stabbed to death, the festivities in this isolated house of tricks and mirrors quickly turn dangerous.

Merry Murders at Montmarie by Tim Kelly (US) 
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 17w, 7m) 
Charlie, a young American, arrives at Montmarie, Switzerland, to take over the girls’ school he’s inherited from his aunt. Soon it becomes apparent that something sinister is brewing and the teachers and staff are not quite what they seem.

Moose Murders by Arthur Bicknell (US) 
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 4m) 
The well-heeled heirs of a wealthy but ailing old man named Sidney Holloway have purchased the Wild Moose Lodge in the Adirondacks as a place for daddy to live out his last days. During an innocuous game of “Murder” suggested by one of the clan, mousey young Lorraine Holloway is murdered for real. What might happen next?

2016 TheatreSquared production of Murder for Two (Beth Hall)

Murder for Two by Kellen Blair and Joe Kinosian (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 2 any)
One fateful night, shots ring out at the surprise birthday party of Great American Novelist Arthur Whitney and the writer is killed. With the nearest detective an hour away, Marcus jumps at the chance to prove his sleuthing skills –with the help of his silent partner, Lou. But whodunit? Murder For Two is the perfect blend of music, mayhem and murder! In this hilarious 90-minute show, 2 performers play 13 roles – not to mention the piano – in a witty and winking homage to old-fashioned murder mysteries.

Murder is A Game by Fred Carmichael (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 3m)
Laughter, suspense, intriguing characters, sparkling dialogue, plot twists and irresistible mystery abound. A successful, married mystery-writing team has dried up, so their publisher gives them an anniversary present – a weekend in an old mansion built for a movie set, peopled with hired characters, who unbeknownst to them, are acting out a murder plot.

Murder on West Moon Street by Rob Urbinati (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4w, 4m)
This brisk and witty comedy, adapted from Oscar Wilde’s short story Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, concerns a naive young gentleman who, after learning from a palm reader that his future involves murder, feels obliged to commit the deed before his pending nuptials.

Murder Under the Big Top  by Tom Chiodo (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 1w, 4m)
The circus is in town! A zany combination of rival trapeze artists, gorillas, lion tamers, clowns, kidnappings, calliopes and fortune tellers leads to mirth and mayhem in this three-ringed-circus charmer of a mystery.

Out of Sight… Out of Murder by Fred Carmichael (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 4m)
In this laugh-a-minute thriller, mystery writer Peter Knight discovers that his characters have come to life. When one of them winds up dead, Peter wonders if he’ll be the murderer’s next victim. Laughs and chills abound as he races to unmask the killer before it’s too late.

Rotten Apples by Tracy Wells (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 9w, 2m, 8 any)
A group of villains – including the Evil Queen, Wicked Stepmother, and the Big Bad Wolf – are locked in a mansion on a dark and stormy night. Their only means of escape is helping Prince Charming figure out the name of a mischievous imp who has his eyes set on a gasp-inducing treasure. As they begin to unravel the mystery before the midnight deadline, the storm knocks out the power in the mansion, and in a twist, some of the guests get knocked out too. Will anyone be left to crack the riddle of the imp’s name and escape?

Samantha Spade, Ace Detective by Lisa Diana Shapiro and Georgia Stitt (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 11w, 10m)
Samantha is a lonely, misfit 13-year-old. After getting bullied in camp, she retreats to the old detective movies she loves, entering a film noir fantasy world where she is Samantha Spade, Ace Detective, the go-to gumshoe who always solves the case – for $25 a day, plus Twizzlers.

Something’s Afoot by James McDonald, David Vos, Robert Gerlach and Ed Linderman (US)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 4w, 6m)
This zany, entertaining musical takes a satirical poke at Agatha Christie mysteries and the musical style of the 1930s English music hall.

Summer Stock Murder by Kingsley Day, Philip LaZebnik and Paul Hough (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 5w, 6m)
Summer stock is a hotbed for affairs, huge egos and – apparently – murder! This riotous musical, set at the Sagautasac Playhouse, revels in high drama. Several bizarre murders befall the theatre as the players rehearse three consecutive shows: a Friml-esque operetta, a Cole Porter-ish potpourri, and a musical drama a la Sondheim.

The 39 Steps by Patrick Barlow and John Buchan (US/UK) 
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 1w, 1m, 2 any gender) 
Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python and you have The 39 Steps, a fast-paced whodunit for anyone who loves the magic of theatre! This two-time Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning treat is packed with nonstop laughs, over 150 zany characters (played by a ridiculously talented cast of four), an onstage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers and some good old-fashioned romance! Also available in an Abridged Version (US/UK) and an Even More Abridged Version (US/UK). 

The Gumball Gang: Crime-Solving Kids by Jim Colleran (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 22 any gender youth + ensemble)
In this witty musical whodunit, Candy Krunch and her team of crime-solving friends leap into action when a masterpiece is stolen during their town’s art competition. With a flexible cast size and 22 speaking roles, this family-friendly mystery offers plenty of opportunities for every actor in its youth cast.

The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 by John Bishop (US/UK) 
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 5m) 
The creative team responsible for a recent Broadway flop (in which three chorus girls were murdered by the mysterious “Stage Door Slasher”) assemble for a backer’s audition of their new show at the Westchester estate of a wealthy “angel.” The house is replete with sliding panels, secret passageways and a German maid who is apparently four different people – all of which figure diabolically in the comic mayhem which follows when the infamous “Slasher” makes his reappearance and strikes again – and again.

2012 Roundabout Theatre Company production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Joan Marcus)

The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Rupert Holmes (US)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 4w, 7m + ensemble)
In this hilarious whodunit, Charles Dickens’ final unfinished novel is presented as a show-within-a-show, as the Music Hall Royale – a delightfully loony Victorian theatre company – presents Dickens’ brooding mystery.

The Plot, Like Gravy, Thickens by Billy Wayne St. John (US) 
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 9w, 5m) 
Great storm effects, spiffy costumes and lots of fun and mystery distinguish this work by the author of Abduction (US), The Reunion (US) and others. Ever want to commit a murder? Walter, the playwright’s alter ego in this madcap mystery, demonstrates just how to do someone in — in your imagination, of course! 

The Suffragette’s Murder by Sandy Rustin (US/UK) 
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 5m) 
It’s the morning of July 5, 1857, and the tenants of the Mayhew Boarding House on New York’s Lower East Side are getting ready for a busy day. As they prepare to host an important gathering, they receive an unexpected visit from a constable. One of the tenants has been murdered. Hilarious hijinks ensue amidst the backdrop of a murder mystery as the tenants band together to conceal their involvement in the suffrage movement and improvise an elaborate ruse to throw the constable off their scent.

Trixie True, Teen Detective by Kelly Hamilton (US)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 4w, 4m)
Hack writer Joe Sneed has been ordered by his boss, Miss Snood, to grind out yet another mystery about Trixie True, “America’s foremost amateur sleuth.” Trixie, beloved of America’s teens, is able to solve capers that baffle the FBI, and Joe is sick of her. So, he begins one last mystery – which will finish off Trixie for good. The bulk of this clever show, then, becomes “The Mystery of the Tapping Shoes,” in which Our Heroine is called on by the FBI to break a Nazi spy ring. But what happens when Joe realizes he has to save Trixie to save his job, and his romantic chances with Miss Snood?

Who is Theo? by David L. Kimple (US/UK) 
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 2m, 1 any gender) 
Who is Theo? is a mile-a-minute modern farce and mini-mystery all in one. Amidst the late-night din of St. Patrick’s Day in New York City, Donna comes home to find a highly intoxicated man named Theo, who is dressed like a leprechaun, in her apartment.

For more great plays and musicals, visit Concord Theatricals in the US or UK.