David Whalen returns (for the 7th time) as Sherlock Holmes in the revival of Kinetic Theatre’s Holiday mystery, the Pittsburgh Premiere of Mark Shanahan’s New York & London hit play, A Sherlock Carol.
Actor David Whalen stars as Sherlock Holmes, returning to his signature role, with a stellar supporting cast led by Simon Bradbury as Watson, James FitzGerald as Scrooge, Susie McGregor-Laine as Mrs. Dilber, Caroline Nicolian as the Countess of Morcar, Mackenzie Heidenreich as Emma Wiggins, & Joseph McGranaghan as Dr. Timothy “Tiny Tim” Cratchit.
The New York Times calls Mark Shanahan’s A Sherlock Carol “a clever, crowd-pleasing, holiday comedy.” Moriarty is dead, to begin with, and Sherlock Holmes is a haunted man. But when a grown-up Tiny Tim asks Holmes to investigate the death of his benefactor Ebeneezer Scrooge, the Great Detective must use his gifts to solve a Dickens of a Christmas mystery!
A hit off-Broadway and in London, Mark Shanahan’s A Sherlock Carol hits all the right notes, seamlessly melding Charles Dickens’ very familiar A Christmas Carol with a comparatively minor Conan Doyle story, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.
Seven actors take on all the beloved characters in this heartwarming and highly theatrical holiday treat for the whole family, playing December 11-21, 2025, at Carnegie Stage, 25 W. Main Street in Carnegie.
The cast for A Sherlock Carol is led by Kinetic Associate Artist David Whalen, who dons the deerstalker to play Sherlock Holmes for the 7th time. This summer, David played Pierrepoint in Kinetic Theatre’s Hangmen. Whalen is a Pittsburgh native and actor of national stature, having performed in New York City, across Europe, and all over the United States.
Last year, he performed in Shakespeare’s The History Plays (Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V) at the Guthrie Theatre and the pre-Broadway tryout of the new musical, Rutka, at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. He is a Kinetic Theatre associate artist and has played the Professor in Oleanna, the Pastor in The Christians, Bruce in Blue/Orange, the racist, homophobic Defense Attorney in Romance, the mobster Don Albert in Scapino, Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock’s Last Case, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Speckled Band, and Holmes and Watson, the Estate Owner in Three Days in the Country, and multiple comedic roles in The illustrious Invalid.
He previously collaborated with Director Andrew Paul at PICT on more than two dozen roles including Mark Antony in Julius Caesar, George W. Bush in Stuff Happens, and the title role in The Lieutenant of Inishmore. His many Pittsburgh Public Theatre appearances include American Son, Othello, God of Carnage, Candida, As You Like It, and The Royal Family and his City Theatre performances include The Monster in the Hall, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and Opus.
David’s other Pittsburgh appearances include Cymbeline at Quantum Theatre, August, Osage County at The Rep, and Take Me Out (director), A Steady Rain, Misery, God of Carnage, and Mamet’s American Buffalo for barebones productions. David was the 2012 MVP Performer and the 2007 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Performer of the Year. He played Claudius in the Folger Theatre’s Helen Hayes award-winning production of Hamlet and was cited by the Washington DC critics for his lead performance.
David won the Kevin Kline Award for Best Actor for reprising his PICT title performance in The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. David toured Europe as gay Mormon lawyer Joe Pitt in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. He has appeared at many of America’s finest theatres including the Roundabout Theatre in New York, Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Alley Theatre in Houston, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Hartford Stage, South Coast Repertory Theatre, Playmaker’s Rep, and Huntington Theatre in Boston.
His many film and television appearances include American Pastoral, The Fault in our Stars, The Legion, Jack Reacher, 61, The Xmas Tree, Black Dahlia, My Bloody Valentine, Three Rivers, All My Children, The Guiding Light, and a significant role in Showtime’s miniseries, The Loudest Voice in the Room, opposite Russell Crowe and Naomi Watts. He plays George Washington in the upcoming PBS series, 1787: The American Constitution.
The supporting cast for A Sherlock Carol is led by two recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Performers of the Year, Simon Bradbury and James FitzGerald. Bradbury just completed a lengthy engagement in The Beatles: LOVE at the Mirage Casino in Las Vegas. He spent seventeen seasons playing leading roles with Canada’s Shaw Festival and four with the Stratford Festival. His Kinetic performances include Harry Wade in Martin McDonagh’s play, Hangmen, Watson in Sherlock’s Last Case and Moliere in his own play, The Illustrious Invalid.
FitzGerald (who plays the venerable Ebeneezer Scrooge) played Watson himself in Kinetic Theatre’s The Hound of the Baskervilles & The Speckled Band.
Susie McGregor-Laine, who played Mrs. Hudson in Kinetic’s Sherlock’s Last Case, returns as Scrooge’s Housekeeper, Mrs. Dilber.
Joseph McGranaghan, who played John in Kinetic’s production of Mamet’s A Life in the Theatre, returns to play Dr. Timothy “Tiny Tim” Cratchit and Caroline Nicolian returns as the mysterious Countess of Morcar. Mackenzie Heidenreich (as Baker Street Irregular, Emma Wiggins) joins Kinetic Theatre for the first time.
A Sherlock Carol features original music and arrangements by Douglas Levine, performed live by Levine (piano/keyboards) and violinist Cara Garofalo.
The design team for A Sherlock Carol is led by resident scenic designer Johnmichael Bohach. Bohach’s previous Kinetic designs include Hangmen, Embers, Oleanna, A Life in the Theatre, Every Brilliant Thing, The Illustrious Invalid, Oscar & Walt, Scapino, The Speckled Band, Holmes & Watson, & The Father. Sound design is by Mark Whitehead, with lighting by Andrew Ostrowski (Embers, Hangmen), Properties by Alex Keplar, and costume design by Kimberly Brown (The Speckled Band, Holmes & Watson).
The production stage manager for A Sherlock Carol is Adrienne Wells with Ian Thomas as assistant stage manager.
Andrew Paul is the founder and producing director of Kinetic Theatre Company and has directed all twenty-four of the company’s acclaimed Pittsburgh Premiere productions: Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange, David Mamet’s Romance, Connor McPherson’s adaptation of Strindberg’s The Dance of Death, Charles Marowitz’s Sherlock’s Last Case, Mike Bartlett’s Cock and Love, Love, Love, Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Speckled Band and The Hound of the Baskervilles (as adapted by Peepolykus), the American premiere of Patrick Marber’s Three Days in the Country (after Turgenev), Lucas Hnath’s The Christians, David Ives’ adaptation of Corneille’s The Liar, Jeffrey Hatcher’s Holmes and Watson, Florian Zeller’s The Father, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ An Octoroon, Jeffrey Binder’s Scapino (after Moliere’s comedy, Scapin), the American premiere of Donald Steven Olson’s Oscar & Walt, the World premiere of Simon Bradbury’s play, The Illustrious Invalid, Duncan MacMillan’s Every Brilliant Thing, David Mamet’s A Life in the Theatre & Oleanna, Christopher Hampton’s Embers (adapted from the novel by Sandor Marai), Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen, and Sam Tsoutsouvas’s celebrated one-man adaptation of Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener.
Andrew previously co-founded the acclaimed Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre (PICT) and served as the company's producing artistic director from 1996 to 2013. Under his leadership, PICT produced more than a hundred plays, festivals devoted to the plays of Samuel Beckett, John Millington Synge, Harold Pinter, and Anton Chekhov, and two successful international tours: Andrew's 2002 production of Friel's Faith Healer starring the late Bingo O'Malley played to acclaim at thirteen venues in Ireland and Northern Ireland and he appeared as an actor in the 2003 production of Shaw's Major Barbara which performed 14 sold-out performances at the Galway Arts Festival and transferred to Dublin for three weeks of performances at the Pavilion Theatre.
In 2008, he directed and collaborated with Sir David Hare on the non-English language premiere of Stuff Happens at the Slaski Theatre in Katowice, Poland. He has taught acting at Duquesne University and directing at Carnegie Mellon University and has served as a panelist for Theatre Communications Group and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In 2010, Andrew was a featured speaker at the World Theatre Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Andrew’s West coast premiere production of The School for Lies at San Diego’s North Coast Repertory Theatre was one of five nominees for Best Production of 2014 at the Craig Noel Awards (as nominated by the San Diego Theatre Critics Association) and his staging of the one woman play Grounded at the Cockroach Theatre in Las Vegas was nominated for three 2015 Valley Theatre Awards. His productions of The Hound of the Baskervilles and Holmes and Watson had lengthy sold out runs at the Gulfshore Playhouse in Naples, Florida.
In 2018, he re-mounted his American Premiere production of Patrick Marber’s Three Days in the Country in its West Coast Premiere at the esteemed Antaeus Theatre in Los Angeles (L.A. Times Critic’s Pick, numerous year-end Awards). His first feature film, the docudrama Cyril (written by Mark Clayton Southers), about renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht, was an official selection of the 2021 Three Rivers Film Festival and won awards for Best Narrative Feature at the Denton Black Film Festival and Best Debut Feature at Singapore Film Carnival.
*Please note: Evening performances begin at 7:30 p.m. and matinee performances at 1:00 p.m. There are 5:30pm performances of A Sherlock Carol on Saturday, December 13th & Saturday, December 20th and a Dark Night/Pay-What-You-Want performance at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, December 15th.
FACT SHEET – Kinetic Theatre
A Sherlock Carol by Mark Shanahan, A Pittsburgh Premiere directed by Andrew Paul & Starring Simon Bradbury, James FitzGerald, Mackenzie Heidenreich, Joseph McGranaghan, Susie McGregor-Laine, Caroline Nicolian, & David Whalen as Sherlock Holmes.
Original music composed by Douglas Levine and performed by Douglas Levine & Cara Garofalo.
Carnegie Stage, 25 W. Main Street, Carnegie, PA 15106
Performances:
First Week:
Thursday, December 11 – Preview, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, December 12 – opening night, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, December 13 – Matinee, 1:00 p.m. & Evening 5:30 p.m. TWO SHOW DAY!
Sunday, December 14 – Matinee, 1:00 p.m. SOLD OUT!
Monday, December 15, 7:30 p.m. (Dark Night/Pay-What-You-Want)
Second Week:
Wednesday, December 17 – 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, December 18 - 7:30 p.m.
Friday, December 19 – 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, December 20– Matinee 1:00 p.m. & Evening 5:30 p.m. TWO SHOW DAY!
Sunday, December 21 – Matinee, 1:00 p.m. Closing Performance.
Single Tickets: $55 in advance through Showclix or $60 at the door, $25 for persons 25 and younger, $30 artist rate, $119 Family Pak (Two adults and two children under the age of 18)
Tickets for A Sherlock Carol are available now online at kinetic.showclix.com or via the Kinetic Website at https://kinetictheatre.org. Contact Kinetic Theatre by phone at (412) 225-9145 or by email at kinetictheatreinfo@gmail.com. Live box office at the theatre from one hour before each performance.
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