PlanetEye

Shear Madness is a comedy who-dunnit that plays at the Charles Playhouse in Boston’s Theatre District.  Shear Madness has been a staple of the Boston theatre scene since 1980 and a guaranteed fun night out. The Boston version is actually the longest running non-musical play in American Theatre history with more than 11,000 performances.

The setting of the play is a present-day Newbury Street Hair Salon. A murder occurs off-stage (in the apartment above the salon) and everyone in the shop is a suspect.  The cast of characters includes some great comic stereotypes-   a gay salon owner, a ditzy hairdresser, a swarmy antiques dealer, a Beacon Hill socialite and a couple of Boston cops.

Shear Madness is hilarious- the actors are truly talented and the script is totally current- with a bit of innuendo and lots of political and pop culture jokes.  This week, there even a barb about Eliot Spitzer!

This is participatory theater. At one point the audience is encouraged to ask questions to help the actors reconstruct the crime scene.  These actors are quick with improv – moving the story towards its conclusion while trading (gentle) insults with the audience.   With a show of hands, the audience then chooses the culprit- and thus the ending of the performance. 

The Charles Playhouse is an intimate and casual theatre setting- most of the seats are arranged around small tables and there is a bar in the back so that you can have a drink while you watch the show. Shear Madness runs Tuesday-Saturday and tickets are $40 for all shows. Note too, that Shear Madness runs during the summer, when most of Boston’s Theatre District is dark.