By Hailey Heinz

Looking for somewhere to take your parents this weekend for Parent’s Weekend? Northeastern Parent’s Asso-ciation will have buses on Oct. 22 to the hit theaterical whodunit “Shear Madness.”

The show has been playing in Boston through five presidential administrations, the transformation of Michael Jackson and the era of grunge rock. Older than most Northeastern students, “Shear Madness” began its run in 1980, and is still drawing in audiences six days a week at the Charles Playhouse.

Despite its longevity, the show feels extremely fresh. The script is sprinkled with references to modern culture, from the Olsen twins to the shortage of Flu shots. Michael Fennimore, a long-time cast member as well as associate director, said the cast is always revising the script in small ways.

“We do it day by day,” he said.

In this show, changing the script as you go along is just part of the deal. The whodunit murder mystery relies heavily on the audience because the ending varies depending on their reaction.

The first portion of the show sets up the murder and introduces the characters, and then the audience helps the detectives reconstruct the scene and question the witnesses. At the end of the questioning, the audience votes on who is guilty.

The audience is seated casually at tables around the stage, close enough to the actors to encourage lively banter. Fenn-imore, who performed his 6,000th show last week, said the interaction with the audience is the most rewarding part of the show.

“They’re right here, so you get immediate feedback,” he said.

Fennimore joined the cast in 1986 and became the associate director in 1993. He said he plans to stay with the show into the foreseeable future.

“If I quit now, what else am I gonna do?” he said.

As both a cast member and director, Fennimore said he watches the show from two different perspectives.

“One eye has got to be on the audience and doing the show. At the same time, the other eye has to be critical,” he said.

Sometimes when he writes notes in his “detective notebook” during the show, he’s really writing down notes about the show to discuss with the cast later, Fennimore said.

After over 6,000 shows, Fennimore said he sometimes still stuggles with the improvization aspect of the show.

“The worst thing is when the opportunity comes up for a great moment, and you’ll miss it,” he said. “Then you’ll think of it later.”

From the audience, it isn’t always apparent which mo-ments are rehearsed and which ones are impromptu. During a performance last Friday, there were moments when actors seemed to catch each other off guard with unexpected jokes. Fennimore remained deliberately vague about the blend of planned and unplanned.

When questioned about specific moments in the show, he would only say, “Come to the show another time and see if it happens again.”

There is obvious and campy humor for the kids in the crowd, but it’s also rife with sexual innuendoes for the older crowd. Audience members can either passively observe, or can get deeply involved in solving the crime.

“Shear Madness” is performed Tuesday through Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. and Sunday at 3 and 7:30 p.m. For more information on the Parent’s Weekend performance go to www.parents.neu.edu.