Legerdemain - Dungeon Magazine 39

If you need an adventure focused on a theatre in Ptolus, this is a good one. 

There are three theatres described in the setting, but there's plenty of reason for having a fourth. That fourth can be Legerdemain. 

Complete with a colorful troupe of stand-out personalities the DM should feel encouraged to play up, the scenario holds potential for all sorts of shenanigans.

The theatre owner approaches the PCs because he thinks his director is planning to assassinate someone during the upcoming play. He wants them to work as stage hands while investigating the matter. This means they can't be armed, armored, or wearing anything that might give away that they are anything other than laborers. He's right, there is an assassination plot, but it's not the target he imagines.

In the course of the mystery, the characters will learn that the director is being extorted to set the play up for a deadly conclusion, but even he doesn't know the target, but he knows who the villain is and tells them. 

Unfortunately they've been overheard and the party becomes the target of an ambush by the villains hired goons. During the skirmish it is quite possible both sides capture members of the other, leading to a potential hostage swap.

The writer of the adventure has grand visions about back and forth combats that can take place during the play with everyone running about the theatre madly while the show goes on. We DMs know all about the best laid plans, but it is certainly worth the effort to see if you can make that happen.

If the party succeeds, one of them becomes the center of attention for a fickle actress.

And all of this takes place with the party mostly disarmed.

The biggest drawback for me is all of the ink used describing the layout of the theatre. The writer could have minimized the details to just a little more than what is expected to be used in the course of events. There's some conversion work to be done, but it doesn't have to be extensive.