Review: SHEAR MADNESS at Fulton Theatre

Shear Madness is among the longest running and most successful plays in the world, and with good reason. It is a wacky, interactive murder-mystery that made its way to Fulton's fourth floor stage. Taking place in a local hair salon, the show features stylists, customers, and detectives who bounces off each other in funny and unpredictable ways.

One of its hooks is that it takes place in the town where the show is performed. Therefore, there were tons of Lancaster-centric jokes about whoopie pies, Mount Joy, and the Steinman family. Joshua William Green plays Tony Whitcomb, the flamboyant owner of the Sheer Madness salon. Whitcomb has great delivery and is especially physical in his comedy. Rebecca Robbins plays Barbara, the other stylist with sincerity and sass.

Susan Cella is the enjoyable Mrs, Shubert, a dim but distinguished lady about town. Ben Michael plays the mysterious customer, Eddie Lawrence, while Jake Blouch and Mark Tinkey play Nick and Mikey, cops who investigate an off-stage murder.

To be honest, I found the acting in the first thirty minutes to be a little clunky. Actors over-depended on the unwritten law of farce that louder equals funnier. Furthermore, some of the lines came across as a little wooden.

However, all of this changed with the introduction of the show's seventh character, my favorite... the audience. In order to get a better grasp of who did what and when, the cast encourages substantial audience dialogue and participation to move things along.

I am sure this could backfire if the majority of the patrons were particularly shy or unenthusiastic. However, my matinee crowd was full of funny, rambunctious participants who all voiced interesting theories and ideas. In fact, I was almost convinced that an older lady in the front was a ringer, because her comments were so consistently witty.

I am sure Shear Madness is cast less for method actors, and more for master improvisors. The less-than-natural dialogue in the beginning melted away into a breezy, joyful and natural give and take among characters, and between characters and audience. I would imagine that this is a really fun show to perform. Everyone on stage seemed to be enjoying the unscripted conversations as much as the rest of us.

The show has a few more notable tricks up its sleeve, but I am reluctant to share too much and give away any additional surprises.

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