Shear Madness
is one of the longest-running nonmusical plays in the world, [1] owned by Marilyn Abrams and Bruce Jordan.
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SHEAR MADNESS TICKETS
EVENT | DATE | AVAILABILITY |
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Shear Madness Tickets 5/9 | May 09, 2024 Thu, 5:00 PM | | Shear Madness Tickets 5/9 | May 09, 2024 Thu, 8:00 PM | | Shear Madness Tickets 5/10 | May 10, 2024 Fri, 8:00 PM | | Shear Madness Tickets 5/11 | May 11, 2024 Sat, 6:00 PM | | Shear Madness Tickets 5/11 | May 11, 2024 Sat, 9:00 PM | |
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Creation
David Eastwood and
Bruce Jordan acquired rights for a murder mystery originally titled "Scherenschnitt," written by Swiss playwright
Paul Portner, and made it into "Shear Madness."
Plot
The play is set in a
unisex hair salon in the city in which it plays. The landlady, Isabel Czerny, who lives above the shop is
murdered and the audience gets involved in the action by questioning the actors and attempting to solve the crime. The characters include a flamboyant
homosexual hairdresser and his flirty yet ditsy assistant, along with a prim and proper uptight older lady and an older man who is a "used antique dealer." Much of the dialogue is improvised by the actors, and the humor tends to revolve around topical references to current events.
The ending of the play is different every night as audience members hear clues, question the characters and then vote on who they think is guilty.
[2] Whoever gets the highest votes is then "revealed" to be the guilty party, although the audience is not made aware of this fact.
Performance history
Shear Madness
opened in Boston at the Charles Playhouse Stage II in January 1980. A second production, at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., opened in August 1987. The Boston production is sometimes described as the longest-running or second-longest-running non-musical play in the world, although various non-musical plays have run for longer:
Agatha Christie's
The Mousetrap
in
London since 1952,
Eugene Ionesco's
The Bald Soprano
in
Paris since 1957, and
Israel Horovitz's
Line
in
New York City since 1974. A Turkish adaptation by director Nedim Saban opened in Istanbul in 1998. In 2003 Saban adapted the play for a second time; where he introduced SMS messages and online chatting as means of interaction.
[3]
Performance Locations
City
| Theatre
| Website
| Status
|
Boston, MA
| Charles Playhouse
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| Currently Running
|
Washington, DC
| John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
|
| Currently Running
|
Las Vegas, NV
| Shear Madness Theater at Town Square Las Vegas
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| Currently Running
|
Seoul, Korea
| Al&Haek Theater
|
| Currently Running
|
References
- STAGE REVIEW: Shear Madness - Consistently Different, ''The Tech''
- Shear Madness: Performing Arts, Theater and Dance Events in Washington, DC on washingtonpost.com's City Guide
- "En son teknolojiyle tiyatro" by Sehnaz Pak - http://www.radikal.com.tr/haber.php?haberno=61170