Shear Madness Tickets | Schedule for 2024/2025 Events

Shear Madness

Shear Madness refers to both a comedy/thriller playing in the Kennedy Center's Theater Lab and a unisex hair parlor where a blow-dry murder occurs. The show, which is in its eighth year in Boston, is also running in Montreal, Chicago, and Barcelona, Spain. It ran in Philadelphia for five years but has yet to go to Broadway. On November 16, the Boston production ran longer than "Life With Father" for a non-musical show in American theater history.

The Story

The play occurs in a hair salon for both men and women. Isabel Czerny, the landlady who lives above the shop, is killed, and the audience gets involved by asking questions of the actors and trying to figure out who did it. There is a flamboyant hairdresser and his flirty but dim-witted assistant. There is also an older woman and a man who is a "used antique dealer."

Every night, the play ends differently because the audience hears clues, asks the characters questions, and votes on who they think is guilty. Whoever the audience thinks is the murderer, that person and the rest of the cast make up lines to show who they are.

History of Performance

Shear Madness debuted on Stage II of the Charles Playhouse in Boston in January 1980. The second staging premiered in August 1987 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Lab in Washington, D.C.

New World Stages Off-Broadway in New York City had its third production in November 2015. Many claim that the Boston staging is the longest-running non-musical play in history. However, Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap has been running in London since 1952, Eugène Ionesco's The Bald Soprano has been running in Paris since 1957, and Israel Horovitz's Line has been running in New York City since 1984. (1974-2018).

In 1998, Nedim Saban, a Turkish director, brought the story to life in Istanbul. In 2003, Saban changed the play again. This time, he added text messages and online chat as ways for characters to talk to each other. In 2011, a French version written by Sacha Danino and  Sébastien Azzopardi and directed by Sébastien Azzopardi opened in Paris. In 1987, a Catalan version written by Guillem-Jordi Graells and directed by Pere Planella opened in Barcelona. In 1989, a Spanish version written by Nacho Artime opened in Madrid. In 2017, a Spanish version of the book, written by Ricardo Esquerra and Alberto Lomnitz, was shown in Mexico City. It was directed by Rina Rajlevsky.