Perfect Crime celebrates 24th anniversary

Warren Manzi's thriller Perfect Crime, directed by Jeffrey Hyatt, will celebrate its 24th anniversary on 18 Apr 2011, on that date the drama will have played 9,818 performances.

Manzi's Perfect Crime opened Off-Broadway on 18 Apr 1987, and has played at a number of Off-Broadway venues during its long run - it's current home is at Snapple Theater Center.

The script sat in Manzi's drawer for seven years until he became the artistic director of a theater company that produced the play. Initially opening as an Equity Showcase on 18 Apr 1987 for a four-week limited run at The Courtyard Playhouse, Perfect Crime has since become what New York Times critic Jason Zinoman called "an urban legend" thanks to its incredible staying power.

A secluded mansion. A would-be murderess. The Perfect Crime. Margaret Brent is an accomplished Connecticut psychiatrist and potential cold-blooded killer. When her wealthy husband turns up dead, she gets caught in the middle of a terrifying game of cat and mouse with a deranged patient and the handsome but duplicitous investigator assigned to the case.

The cast of Perfect Crime features Catherine Russell (Margaret Brent), John Hillner, George McDaniel, Patrick Robustelli and Richard Shoberg.

Leading lady Catherine Russell has starred in the show since its first performance, has only missed four of those 9,818 performances, a feat which recently landed her in the Guinness Book of World Records. Russell's incredible streak has been featured on Entertainment Tonight, The Today Show and Good Morning America and in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News and numerous other publications including People, which dubbed her "The Cal Ripken of Broadway".

Since Perfect Crime opened in 1987, Russell has spent over two years of her life (nearly 17,000 hours) onstage. She has shot 89 different men and kissed 57 others. Almost 83,000 bullets have been fired onstage and over 5,000 prop coffee cakes have been eaten. Amazingly, the show has employed 237 actors during its 24-year existence.