Finally! Boston Murder Mystery Mainstay Shear Madness Sets New York Dates

After being seen by over 11 million people worldwide, Shear Madness will finally play New York City. The hair salon-set murder mystery comedy will make its off-Broadway premiere at New World Stages beginning October 22, with opening night set for November 11.

Marilyn Abrams and Bruce 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.

Cast and design team for the open-ended engagement will be announced at a later date.