The Off-Broadway ‘whodunit’ Perfect Crime is celebrating its 31st anniversary on Wednesday, April 18 in what the show’s producers describe as a milestone for “the longest-running play in the city’s history.”
The show, being presented in the Anne L. Bernstein Theater at The Theater Center in Times Square (1627 Broadway), has been a presence in New York City since 1987, as the world around it changed.
The show tells the story of a clever, but money hungry psychiatrist and suspected cold-blooded killer Margaret Brent, her wealthy husband, deranged patient, and the handsome detective who’s falling in love with her while trying to solve the crime.
When the play first opened, the Internet was in its infancy, cell phones were only beginning to arrive, the best selling video game was Zelda II and USA Today made news as the first U.S. newspaper to publish a digital photograph on its front page.
“Airplanes were just being outfitted to fly using computer-driven, fly-by-wire controls. Pioneer introduced its erasable-recordable laser video disc,” according to the show. “ The New York City subway cost $1 and you used tokens – there were no Metro Cards. The Iron Curtain was still up in Berlin, and the USSR wasn’t called Russia.”
A lot has changed since that date when the first episode of The Simpsons aired, Married with Children and 21 Jump Street were the top shows on TV and Fatal Attraction was on the silver screen.
Perfect Crime features Catherine Russell, who has starred in the show since its first performance and has never taken a sick day or a vacation day in the past 31 years, according to the show.
The cast of the show, directed by Jeffrey Hyatt, also features new cast member, Guiding Light’s Grant Aleksander, David Butler, Patrick Noonan, and Patrick Robustelli, a well-known Broadway restaurant owner making an on-video cameo.
Since Perfect Crme opened in 1987, Catherine Russell has spent almost 3 years of her life or nearly 26,000 hours onstage, shot 90 different men and kissed 59 others.
“It’s a feat that has landed her in the Guinness Book of World Records,” according to the production. ”Russell’s incredible streak has been featured on Entertainment Tonight, The Today Show, Good Morning America and in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Daily News.”
Nearly 104,832 bullets have been fired onstage and more than 6,000 prop coffee cakes have been eaten. The show has employed 243 actors during its 31-year existence.
Tickets for Perfect Crime are available by calling the box office at (212) 921-7862 or online at www.Ticketmaster.com. Student rush tickets ($26) are also available by calling or visiting the box office.