What is the play (no musicals, thank you) with the longest consecutive run in American theater history? Why, it’s Shear Madness, a comedy thriller that encourages the audience to help solve the mystery. On Jan. 31, at the Charles Playhouse in Boston, the show celebrated its 15th anniversary with its 6,273rd performance, nearly twice as many as the Broadway non-musical champ, Life with Father. And the second longest runner? Shear Madness in Chicago (12 years, 4 months). The Washington production of Shear Madness is another hardy perennial; it has been at the Kennedy Center since mid-1987.
Set in a unisex barber shop-think of Steel Magnolias crossed with The Mousetrap-this interactive comedy is one of the best-kept successes in show business. In 1980 Shear Madness was capitalized at $60,000. Since then it has grossed $54 million while playing to 3.8 million people in 23,000 performances in the U.S. (St. Louis, Philadelphia and Austin as well as the cities mentioned above) and around the world (Montreal, Tel Aviv, Melbourne, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Budapest)-but never in New York City, the titular capital of live theater. Many audience members are repeaters, genial cultists; they come back bringing their friends and looking for the differences in each performance. Some fans even make pilgrimages to cities where the show has just opened.
It’s a windfall for Bruce Jordan and Marilyn Abrams, who created the phenomenon. In 1976 Jordan was performing in a Rochester, New York, production of Scherenschnitt (Cutouts, roughly), a psychological study by the Swiss playwright Paul Portner; and two years later, Jordan and Abrams were doing the play in Lake George, New York, “To us,” says Abrams, “it cried out to be a comedy.” The pair bought the rights (for $50,000) and set to funnying it up. They opened the play in Boston to mixed reviews and a flat box office. “We knew the audience was having a delicious time,” Jordan recalls. “We also knew we had our work cut out for us.” They made it shorter, sharper, more actor and audience friendly. And they have smartly sustained it ever since, supervising most of the productions.
Jordan modestly characterizes Shear Madness as “just a fun, silly, enjoyable night out.” But this fizzy burlesque is plenty clever, as both an evening’s entertainment and a marketing strategy. The show’s easy, giddy wit satisfies the customers. They keep coming back because Madness changes every night.
The plot is a gimmick in two brisk acts. In the first we meet six characters in search of a murder: Tony, a flamboyantly gay barber; Barbara, a tough-doll beautician; Eddie, a shady dealer in antiques; the patrician Mrs. Shubert; and two other salon customers who are soon revealed as detectives. They’re staking out the building’s upstairs tenant, Isabel Czerny, a reclusive concert pianist. Sure enough, the unseen Isabel is murdered. O.K.-whodunit?
That’s what the chief detective wants the theatergoers to help him solve, and the play changes each night depending on how they respond. The four suspects are to re-create their moves, and the audience is to speak up if they dissemble. After intermission, the detective answers questions from the audience, and finally the culprit is revealed-in a way we won’t reveal. It’s a cute test of observation, and the crowd eagerly takes to it. “We never use the words audience participation,” Jordan says, “because I know that if I were going to the theater, I wouldn’t want to see an audience-participation play in a million years. What we say is that the audience gets involved in an unusual way.”
The time: today. The place: whatever town the theater is in. The gags: topical and city specific, with references to local hospitals and politicians. When Tony blurts out, “Is there any law against being discreet?” the answer in Chicago is, “Don’t ask me-ask Dan Rostenkowski.” And why, someone asks, is Tony so tense? The reply has varied over the years and venues: “He’s been that way ever since Burt and Loni broke up … ever since Tom Selleck/Don Johnson/Michael Jackson got married … ever since Doug Flutie left town.” Currently, in Boston: “… ever since he found out he can’t march in the St. Patrick’s Day parade.” In Washington: “… ever since the Republicans had the House Newtered.”
The show is freshened often-recently there have been many jokes about the O.J. Simpson trial. And within a day of the flap about Representative Dick Armey’s slip of the tongue, the show had Tony stuttering out the names of his two cats: “Barney and F-F-Frank.”
As a box-office phenomenon, Shear Madness succeeds by appealing to high school classes, civic groups, bowling teams. “Our audience is just about everybody,” says Abrams. “The show cuts across age barriers and economic barriers and theatrical barriers.” Theatrical barristers too. At the birthday party for the Boston production, four lawyers (including ABC’s Arthur Miller) acted as defense counsel for the suspects.
The idea is to have a good time without the heavy freight that theater often carries. Says Jordan: “This play, and going to the theater, is an activity that can be a lot of fun. Like going to Las Vegas or playing golf.” Or getting a haircut and a perm, and some law and disorder, at your local salon.
–With reporting by William Tynan/Chicago
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