The Barber Did It, More Than Once

Shear Madness

directed by Bruce Jordan at the Charles Playhouse indefinite run

Fifteen years. For the past 15 years, detective Mike Thomas (Mar Cartier) has gotten his hair cut eight times a week, just before concert pianist Isabella Czerny is stabbed in the throat with a deadly pair of scissors. One would think he'd have run out of hair by now, and she'd have moved away from the cursed hair salon where Boston's hilarious audience-participation murder mystery Shear Madness is set.

But what's a bit of hair loss and death, if they bring you apparently eternal commercial success and an entry in the Guiness Book of World Records for the longest running non-musical in American theater history? Sounds remarkable, implausible even. Yet somehow, Shear Madness' formula works.

With its topical humor and suspenseful plot, the audience cannot help but be drawn (quite literally) into the play. The cast takes witty and spontaneous stabs at contemporary events--as well as each other--and nothing is sacred.

Looking for a way to kill someone? Why stab your better half in the throat when there's USAir? Such playful suggestions are rife throughout the play. Shear Madness constantly reminds us of the funny bits in life and the news. Remember McDonald's $2 million cup of steaming hot coffee? Newt Gingrich's pet name for Hillary Clinton? They live again in Shear Madness.

What makes it all so entertaining is the actors' very apparent enjoyment of the stage madness. Their repeated attempts at stifling their own laughter add to the audience's pleasure. You cannot help but laugh along with them in this stand-up act with a plot.

Funny as the quips are, the neat turn around when police officer Nick Rosetti (Michael Fennimore) asks the audience to help find Czerny's murderer wins Shear Madness the most fans. The chance to be sleuth for a night leaves everyone clambering for their turn to join in.

You get to question the suspects, suggest solutions and point out inconsistencies. But the suspects won't just sit there and let you interrogate them. They'll get even. You'll be insulted, made fun of, held up for ridicule--it's all part of the fun. But it is the audience who will have the last word, because they ultimately decide who the evening's killer is.

Patrick Shea, as the horrendously over-sexed (and flamboyantly gay) hairdresser Tony Whitcomb, simply cracks you up. He delivers his punchlines with deadly accuracy and leaves everyone, including the actors, incapacitated with laughter.

The other hairdresser, the trendy (and busty) Barbara DeMarco (Sarah Newhouse), provides a great counter to Tony. Her acid retorts and nasal Bostonian accent charm even the most cynical of the cultural elite.

The Bostonian accent is just one of the show's elements tailored for the Beantown audience. Boston's Shear Madness is one of three productions currently enjoying an extended run of this fast-food theater phenomenon across America.

After 15 years, this Boston legend racks up an awesomely funny evening. Bring your friends for a great block-bonding experience. You can never get tired of it--Shear Madness is always different, depending on who's in the audience and what's in the news today.