Friday, December 25, 2009

Opera Glasses and Shear Madness: a Comedic Review

By Jeff Bridges

If you are planning on seeing the comedy play Shear Madness make sure you bring your Opera Glasses. In reviewing this wonderful performance I must first make sure that you are prepared for aching cheeks, and stomach muscles that will be sore for a week. I loved Shear Madness, Never have I laughed so hard in my life!

The play begins in a unisex hair salon; there are many types of people at coming in and out of the salon. We see many stereotypes, we see the dumb blond, homosexual hair dresser (played by John McGivern in the performance I attended.), the police officers, a high class woman, and of course the traditional red hot hunk of a man, which makes John McGivern's character giggle with delight. In this scene we get the first bits of comedy. All of the characters seem to be sharing the most well guarded secrets with the hairdressers; much like as is found in the real world.

This play is ever changing as the topics of interest revolve around current events going on around the city Shear Madness is open in and the United States hot topics. The current events are twisted into a funny light. The characters use a lot of improvisation and sometimes the actors cannot contain their own laughter which only makes you laugh even harder. To make sure you see each actor slip up trying hard not to giggle, bring your Opera glasses.

Unexpectedly during the play one of the actors will speak directly to a person or people in the audience to ask for opinions. You may even find yourself yelling out the answers. You must understand that you answer may vary from your neighbors, which adds an exciting new element to this wonderful performance. I do advise you to be careful if you find yourself in the first two or three rows, as you may become the topic of one of the jokes, remember though this is all in good humor.

Besides running a beauty salon and all of the gossip that it entails, Shear Madness' plot pertains to a murder. The person murdered is the owner of the salon. The owner lived upstairs of the salon before she was murdered. As a member of the audience you are enthralled trying to figure out who the murderer is. Looking back at the play, each character in the play could possibly be the correct killer. You will find yourself squinting your eyes and eyebrows and scratching your head trying to figure out who committed the murder. Use your Opera glasses often to help you choose who the guilty murderer is.

There is one last twist me must tell you about this improvised performance, although the owner of the beauty salon is always the one who gets murdered at the beginning, the person who actually did the killing is different every time! As the plot develops the actors ask members of the audience for their opinions, and toward the end, a vote takes place in which the murderer is chosen. This development is always very comical, and you will love to hear the different reasons the killers give to justify their actions. There is one catch though, if you want to see why each murderer kills the owner, you will have to see it multiple times, as there is only one murderer in each showing!

Shear Madness is one of the longest running plays that are not musical. Popular critics such as the New York Times, Newsweek, Chicago Sun-Times, The Wall Street Journal and more have given Shear Madness rave reviews.

Remember when you attend, as always; bring your opera glasses, so as to not miss one single moment! Opera glasses will help you to make sure that you don't miss one moment or a laugh.

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