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| Show | Did He Like It?* |
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With over 8000 performances, this mystery thriller continues in the heart of Times Square. Murder mystery about a psychiatrist who is accused of killing her husband by a detective who can't quite pin the murder on her. The complication is that the psychiatrist and the detective are in love. Click here for tickets. |
Still Kicking After 18 Years of Homicide
*By JASON ZINOMAN
Published: October 3, 2005
What is the secret to the longevity of "Perfect Crime," the longest-running musical or play in New York? No one knows for sure, but it must help that its star, Catherine Russell, who has played all but four performances since its opening in April of 1987, not only provides the little spark still generated by this mothball-ridden soap opera, but also tears tickets before it begins. Try getting Nathan Lane to do that.
One of the great curiosities of New York theater, "Perfect Crime," a middlebrow murder mystery about a suspicious psychiatrist, has been so inconspicuous for so long that it has often seemed like an urban legend. The press mostly ignores it, and I have met only one person who claims to have seen it.
On a recent weekend I discovered that "Perfect Crime" not only exists, but actual audience members attend, although not many; a few dozen people filled about half of the intimate theater.
Even though the production is supposed to be set in the present day, some of the props, like an office telephone, seem to belong in another era, as does the poster in the sparsely decorated lobby that reads, "Perfect Crime: A New Thriller."
The most surprising thing about this production is how conventional it is. Unlike other long-running Off Broadway shows, like "Stomp" or "Tony 'n' Tina's Wedding," this drama, by Warren Manzi, is an old-fashioned play with a single set and a story line that unfolds during one week. Set in a home in a wealthy community in Connecticut, it begins with a murder. Or does it? A local detective (Jay Nickerson) thinks so, and he is convinced that the man seemingly killed onstage was done in by his wife, an attractive and whip-smart psychiatrist and novelist named Margaret Thorne Brent (Ms. Russell). But then, how to explain the fact that the husband (David Butler) shows up later?
Ms. Russell, who is also the show's general manager, runs a consulting firm that - surprise - helps theater people create and manage long-running shows. She said, reluctantly, that the weekly gross of "Perfect Crime" averages $35,000 to $45,000. At $40 a ticket, that would mean about 110 audience members a night - significantly more than I saw.
But, as Ms. Russell says, "We wouldn't run if we didn't make money."
Remarkably, Ms. Russell does not seem too old for the role she has played for almost two decades. Without a trace of boredom in her active eyes, she projects a palpable unease as the body count rises, but never truly reveals her hand. Fans of cheap genre novels and twisty murder mysteries may have fun puzzling out the labyrinthine plot. If the play seems convoluted, that is part of the point.
But if you stick with the story - and considering the turgid performances, that's asking a lot - it does make sense and even has a certain thematic elegance. As the illusions reveal themselves, a confusion and sense of terror slowly build. Or at least that's what should happen if the production wasn't so lethargic.
As Ms. Brent's violent patient, Stephen Clarke lackadaisically delivers his potentially chilling speeches, and his monologue referencing the plot of "The Glass Menagerie," when delivered in such an indifferent monotone, comes off as pointless. Surely, the play would benefit from a lighter directorial touch than that applied by Jeffrey Hyatt. The often-absurd machinations seem perfectly suited for parody - or at least a bit of panache - on the part of these potential killers and victims.
But the performers play their parts thuddingly straight. The production evokes Charles Ludlam's Grand Guignol comedy "The Mystery of Irma Vep" performed in the style of an Arthur Miller play.
Still, the producers of "Perfect Crime" have displayed enviable persistence, beating the odds by maintaining low overhead (Jay Stone and Mr. Manzi's naturalistic design is not lavish) and picking up extra dollars wherever they can. Over the years, the production has moved from lease to lease. It opened at the Courtyard Playhouse in Greenwich Village. Since then, the play has moved to the Second Stage, the 47th Street Theater (playing there in three stints), Theater Four, Intar Theater, the Harold Clurman Theater and the Duffy Theater. In August it moved again, to the Snapple Theater Center, an example of corporate sponsorship that makes the American Airlines Theater sound august. (Neither Snapple nor Ms. Russell would reveal how much the company is paying the theater to have its name displayed.) But don't be too judgmental as you pass the bottles of Snapple in the well-stocked refrigerator in the lobby. When you're trying to survive in your 18th year, every penny counts.
"Perfect Crime" has an open-ended run at the Snapple Theater Center, 1627 Broadway, at 50th Street; (212) 695-3401.
Click here to buy tickets.
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