The National Symphony Orchestra performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday night for the first time since President Donald Trump announced he would close the center for a two-year renovation or rebuild, beginning July 4. An hour before showtime, the soaring, red-carpeted halls of the center felt funereal, empty except for the guards who run the metal detectors at the newly installed security checkpoints, and a few people gathered to hear a free concert at the Millennium Stage. The NSO and a perennial production of “Shear Madness,” a whodunit theater trifle that has been running for almost 40 years, are now the mainstays of center’s mostly empty calendar.
