Shear Madness Is Back! With New Killer Cast

Let’s be clear.  This isn’t the opera, ballet, symphony, or high-brow theatre experience you’d normally anticipate with tickets to the Kennedy Center.

No, Shear Madness is a quirky murder mystery performed in the Kennedy Center’s Theatre Lab.  True theatre critics love to hate it, but there’s a reason this show holds the Guinness world record as the longest running play in America.

The corny comedy went on hiatus after 12,000+ performances late last year.  But now it’s back — and audiences (largely tourist and high school groups) are delighting again in the antics of a killer cast.

Barbara Demarco (Kay Kerimian), Mike Thomas (Zack Powell), Tony Whitcomb (Wood Van Meter), Eddie Lawrence (Cory Cunningham), Nick O’Brien (Jamie Smithson), and Mrs. Shubert (Holly C. Vagley), all find themselves in a Georgetown hair salon when the landlady pseudo-celeb living above the shop is murdered.  With dialogue largely improvised — and chock full of hilarious up-to-the-minute current events — each night contains new action and new clues.

And the best part about this humorous whodunnit is that the audience chooses the culprit.  That’s right — if you’re in attendance, you join the 3.3+ million at the Kennedy Center (12+ million worldwide) who have decided how this play will end on any given performance.  And if enough of you decide differently tomorrow, then you’ll enjoy an entirely different ending!

Performances for Shear Madness are Tuesday through Friday evenings at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., and Sundays at 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Tickets from $50 are on sale through the Kennedy Center website, in-person at the Kennedy Center box office, or by calling (202) 467-4600 or (800) 444-1324