Shear Madness

The play is set in a unisex hair salon in the city where it is played. 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 hairdresser and their flirty yet ditzy 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. Whoever the audience votes to be the murderer, that person improvises dialogue along with the rest of the cast to reveal themselves. == Current productions ==

United States In August 1987, a production of Shear Madness opened at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts's Theater Lab in Washington D.C., and continues as of 2026. It has been performed there over 14,000 times. Poland A production began in Warsaw, Poland at the Kwadrat Theatre in 1999. By January 2025, it had been performed over 1,200 times in Warsaw. In 2006, productions of Shear Madness began at the Bagatela Theatre in Kraków, Poland. In 2024, the Kraków production celebrated its 1,000 performance of the play at the theater. France A French adaptation by director Sébastien Azzopardi, written by Azzopardi and Sacha Danino, opened in Paris at the Théâtre des Mathurins in 2011 and has had over 3,500 performances. ==Past productions==

Off-Broadway theater in New York City running there until July 2016. It then reopened later that month at the Davenport Theater, running until April 2017. Productions also ran in Philadelphia and Chicago. A Spanish adaptation by director Rina Rajlevsky, written by Alberto Lomnitz and Ricardo Esquerra, opened in 2017 in Mexico City at the Fernando Soler Theatre. Boston In January 1980, it opened Boston at the Charles Playhouse Stage II and initially was planned for an 8-week run before heading to New York. However, the show initially failed to re-coup so it continued on in Boston until it made back its initial investment, which it did in August 1980. However a few other non-musical plays have run for longer: Eugène Ionesco's The Bald Soprano in Paris since 1957 and Israel Horovitz's Line in New York City (1974–2018). Europe A Catalan adaptation by director Pere Planella, written by Guillem-Jordi Graells, opened in 1987 in Barcelona. A Spanish translation by Nacho Artime premiered in April 1989 in Madrid at the Teatro Figaro. It was restaged there in the 1990s, 2000s, and twice in the 2010s. A Turkish adaptation by director Nedim Saban opened in Istanbul in 1998 and ran for over 500 performances. In 2003, Saban adapted the play for the second time, introducing SMS messages and online chat as means of audience interaction. ==References==