About the show In a hair salon, an audience participates in investigating the murder of the landlady, questioning characters and voting on the killer. The ending varies by performance, with actors improvising the reveal.
Sources: Wikipedia page identity · Wikipedia source revision · Official work history · Producing theatre adaptation credits
Wikipedia source revision : Wikipedia contributors, Shear Madness; revision 1378475509. History: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shear%20Madness&action=history ; license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ . Synopsis paraphrased during individual-page model review. Catalog year basis: The official Shear Madness history describes Jordan and Abrams turning Pörtner’s serious participatory German drama into a comedy and opening the renamed work in Lake George in summer 1978. Producing theatre credits explicitly name Abrams and Jordan as original adapters. The 1963 Ulm date belongs to Scherenschnitt, not this English reworking.
Official work history : Official history identifies Jordan and Abrams’s comic reworking and its summer 1978 Lake George opening. Accessed 2026-11-05.
Producing theatre adaptation credits : Majestic Theater credits Shear Madness as adapted and produced by Marilyn Abrams and Bruce Jordan, based on Paul Pörtner’s play. Accessed 2026-11-05.