Perfect Crime To Celebrate 22nd Anniversary & 9,000th Performance 4/17-18

Perfect Crime, the longest-running play in the history of New York theater, will celebrate its historic 22nd Anniversary and 9,000th performance with a two-day celebration beginning tomorrow, Friday, April 17, 2009. Catherine Russell, star and general manager of Perfect Crime, will appear in an 8:15am segment on Good Day New York with anchors Rosanna Scotto and Greg Kelly. She will discuss her record-breaking twenty two-year run in Perfect Crime and her induction into The Guinness Book of World Records.

On Saturday, April 18, 2009 the entire audience for the 8PM performance of Perfect Crime will celebrate the show's latest milestone with a special post-performance cocktail party. At the event The Office of Mayor Michael Bloomberg will present Perfect Crime with a citation honoring the show's status as a New York City cultural landmark. In addition, Russell will be formally inducted into The Guinness Book of World Records for The Most Performances By A Theater Actor in the Same Role.

Russell has appeared in the play since its first performance on April 18, 1987 and has appeared in every performance of the play except four. Her record has been featured on Entertainment Tonight and The Today Show and in The New York Times, People magazine, The Wall Street Journal and numerous other publications.

During Perfect Crime's long run, nearly 1.5 million audience members have seen the show; 80,478 gunshots have been fired; 4,862 prop coffee cakes (an important clue in the show's mystery plot) have been consumed; and hundreds of actors have been employed. Russell, meanwhile, has spent over two years of her life onstage (16,000+ hours).

Since 1987 Perfect Crime has seen a number of changes and innovations in both the production and the play itself. The script has been updated to reflect necessary shifts in cultural phenomena to keep the play relevant as a "slice of life" drama. Outdated technology has been replaced by cell phones and an on-set flat screen television. A character's net worth has been upped from $10 million to $500 million, a plot point involving The Phil Donahue Show has been changed to The Oprah Winfrey Show, and a reference to an AMEX gold card was changed first to a platinum card and now to black. Costumes have been re-designed a number of times to reflect shifting trends in business wear, women's fashion and detective garb.

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. Along with Russell the cast includes Michael Brian Dunn (Broadway's The Life, Guys and Dolls, Big River, Sweeney Todd), Patrick Robustelli, Richard Shoberg (24 years as Tom Cudahy on ABC's All My Children) and Patrick Ryan Sullivan (Broadway's 42nd Street, Titanic, Beauty and the Beast). The play is written by Warren Manzi and directed by Jeffrey Hyatt.

The performance schedule is as follows: Mondays at 8PM, Wednesdays at 2PM, Thursdays at 8PM, Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 2PM & 8PM and Sundays at 3PM & 7:15PM. Tickets, priced $41 - $51, are available by calling the box office at (212) 921-7862 or Ticketmaster.com at (212) 307-4100. Specially-priced $26 student tickets are available at the box office.

The Snapple Theater Center is located at 210 West 50th Street (at Broadway).