Broadway Alum Jeremy Kushnier & More Tapped for Shear Madness Off-Broadway

Broadway alums Jeremy Kushnier (Jersey Boys), Lynne Wintersteller (Grand Night For Singing) and more will star in the off-Broadway premiere of worldwide hit Shear Madness. Directed by Bruce Jordan, the hair salon-set murder mystery comedy, which has been seen by more than 11 million people, will begin previews at New World Stages on October 22, with opening night scheduled for November 11.

Joining Kushnier and Wintersteller in the cast will be Adam Gerber, Kate Middleton, Patrick Noonan and Jonathan Spivey.

Marilyn Abrams and Jordan adapted Shear Madness from the 1963 play Scherenschnitt by German playwright Paul Pörtner. Their English reworking opened in Lake George in 1978 with Abrams and Jordan starring and at the helm. After further developments, the show moved to Boston for what it was treated as an out-of-town run before New York. Over 30 years later, the comedy still resides at Beantown’s Charles Playhouse.

The show incorporates improv and audience participation as theatergoers question the cast of characters in a unisex hair salon after the landlord, Isabel Czerny, is murdered. Think Drood with blow dryers.

Shear Madness will feature scenic and lighting design by Will Cotton, costume design by Rodney Harper and sound designer by Bruce Yauger.