SHEAR MADNESS Returns To Queen City, Starts 4/9 At Stage Door Theater

The hilarious SHEAR MADNESS, Charlotte's all time longest running theatrical hit, returns to the Queen City for another run of side-splitting laughs starting April 9 at the Stage Door Theater.

This worldwide hit played 210 performances in the Booth Playhouse in 2006 during its inaugural engagement in Charlotte. The runaway hit's success convinced the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center to remount the production this spring so that Charlotte audiences could take another crack at helping the show's zany cast of characters figure out who murdered Isabel Czerny in her apartment above the Shear Madness hair salon.

More than eight million people around the world have seen Shear Madness and made it America's favorite comedy for nearly 30 years. Charlotte fans were no exception. The show's 2006 engagement at the Center was extended four times past the originally planned end date, ultimately becoming the longest running show in Charlotte theater history.

"Charlotte theatergoers loved this show and we've heard from fans since the day it closed asking when it would be coming back," said Center President Tom Gabbard. "Shear Madness is full of local references to Charlotte, and this new production is packed with lots of new, hilarious material. Day to day the actors also add material based on the top news stories. We're excited to launch it again this spring with an Equity cast and the director who was the co-creator of this show. We also think fans from the previous run will be thrilled to see some favorite cast members back to reprise their roles. But the wonderful thing about SHEAR MADNESS is that it truly reinvents itself every night because of the interaction between the audience and the actors and the elements of improvisation. It's always fresh and always hilarious!"

An uproarious whodunit in which the audience gets to solve the crime, the killer hit will play for nine weeks, with previews beginning April 9 and shows running through June 6 in the newly created Stage Door Theater that features cabaret table seating, as well as traditional theater seats. A special menu of food and beverages can be enjoyed in the theater. Only 157 seats will be available per performance, creating an intimate atmosphere perfect for this show.

SHEAR MADNESS runs Tuesdays through Sundays with eight performances a week (exceptions: preview week begins on a Thursday; only one performance on Easter Sunday).

Tickets for Shear Madness are on sale now. Preview Shows are $27.50 - $32.50. Tickets for the run of the show are $29.50 - $39.50. They are on sale at the Performing Arts Center Box Office by calling 704-372-1000 or online at www.BlumenthalCenter.org. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more by calling 704-379-1380.

Living above the Shear Madness hair salon is murder! Heaven only knows how many times poor Isabel Czerny has been murdered since this hilarious whodunit comedy debuted in 1978. Each evening, the concert pianist's untimely demise sets off a wacky investigation that is ultimately solved by none other than YOU, the audience!

Instead of just watching the mystery play out, the audience will be in the middle of the action, helping two inquisitive detectives question suspects and trap them in deceptions. It's this unique interactive element of Shear Madness - along with its over-the-top characters and humor - that has put the show into the Guinness Book of World Records (longest-running play in American theater) and made more than eight million people laugh themselves silly.

Each evening the audience decides the killer, so Shear Madness has a different ending nightly. The cast also incorporates local news and happenings into the show. These elements, along with the interaction with the audience, require cast members quick on their feet with strong improvisation skills. The Charlotte production will feature a professional Equity cast equal to what some have called the show's "perfect script."

Director Bruce Jordan comes to Charlotte with a special connection to Shear Madness: he is the show's co-creator. Shear Madness began in the summer of 1976 when Jordan, a former high school teacher, and Marilyn Abrams, also a former schoolteacher, met while working on another production. Later that year, Jordan came across a play entitled Scherenschnitt, written in 1963 by German writer and psychologist Paul Portner as a study of how people perceive or misperceive reality. The brief play was set in a unisex hair salon and revolved around the off-stage murder of a concert pianist. Subjects were asked to solve the murder based on their individual perceptions of the events and the six stereotypical characters surrounding the murder.

Jordan was intrigued by the concept and suggested that he and Abrams stage the play together. The newly titlEd Shear Madness opened in Lake George, New York, in 1978. That first year, the comedy was truly a work in progress with the majority of the show improvised each night. The cast "learned" from the audience reaction and maintained the action and the characterizations that received a good response, and also learned how to truly allow the audience to become part of the show.

Today, Jordan still advises his actors to "let the audience win." "If the audience has something funnier to say or do than the actors, we let them. That is the basic magic of the play," he says. "Early on, most of the laughs in Shear Madness were attained during the times when the audience was actively involved in solving the crimes. And the laughs were derived from the wild and conflicting misperceptions that the audience had."

Thus, Portner's serious psychodrama became an interactive comedy whodunit. Jordan and Abrams purchased the world, stage, screen, and television rights to the play and established Cranberry Productions (as in, they are quick to explain, "What else goes with a turkey") to nurture the hit that they knew they had cultivated. With complete financial and artistic control over the show, they now had an enormous project on their hands. After more than two years honing the comedy, Jordan and Abrams moved their show to Boston. They scheduled a brief run at the historic Charles Playhouse in Boston's Theatre District to begin January 29, 1980, and the rest, as they say, is history. The Boston production has played for nearly 30 years and counting! The show has been translated into eight languages and played to audiences worldwide.

THE CAST * These actors appeared in the same role for the 2006 NCBPAC Production

Barbara Jean Devereaux - played by JULIANA BLACK
Mike Thomas - played by JOSEPH KLOSEK *
Tony Whitcomb - played by TOM WAHL *
Eddie Lawrence - played by MARTIN THOMPSON *
Nick O'Brien - played by JACK DILLON
Mrs. Shubert - played by Linda Edwards *

Understudies:
For Mrs. Shubert, Barbara Jean Devereaux and Mike Thomas - ELIZABETH SIMPSON
For Tony Whitcomb, Eddie Lawrence and Nick O'Brien - JOSEPH KLOSEK *

Shear Madness plays for two (2) hours. The show is for children over the age of 13, but all ages are welcome. There is some innuendo, but it is all in good fun.

The North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center serves the Carolinas as a leading cultural, entertainment and education provider. For more information, call 704-372-1000 or visit BlumenthalCenter.org. The Center receives operating support from the Arts & Science Council and the North Carolina Arts Council. The Center is also supported through the generous aid of its sponsors, including Presbyterian Hospital, The Official Healthcare Provider and U.S. Airways, Official Airline of Blumenthal Performing Arts Center.

April 9 - June 6, 2009
Stage Door Theater (North College at 5th Street)
Tickets start at $27.50 (previews) and $29.50 (run of show)
TIX/MORE INFO: BlumenthalCenter.org; 704-372-1000 or at the performing arts center

 

 

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