Perfect Crime (play)
| Perfect Crime | |
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| Written by | Warren Manzi |
| Characters | Margaret Thorne Brent Inspector James Ascher Brent Lionel Mcauley David Breuer |
| Date premiered | April 18, 1987 |
| Place premiered | Courtyard Playhouse, Grove Street, West Village, New York City |
| Original language | English |
Perfect Crime is a 1987 murder mystery/thriller play by Warren Manzi. It tells the story of Margaret Thorne Brent, a Connecticut psychiatrist and potential cold-blooded killer who may have committed "the perfect crime." When her wealthy husband, W. Harrison Brent, turns up dead, she gets caught in the middle of a terrifying game of cat and mouse with her deranged patient, Lionel McAuley, and Inspector Ascher, the handsome but duplicitous investigator assigned to the case.
Perfect Crime is the longest-running play in New York City history, with over 12,000 performances.
The play has been called "an urban legend" by The New York Times critic Jason Zinoman because of its long and storied history. Perfect Crime was originally optioned for Broadway in 1980, just after author Manzi graduated from the Yale School of Drama. At age 25, Manzi, then starring as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Amadeus on Broadway, was the youngest American author ever to have a play optioned for Broadway. After producer Morton Gottlieb wanted to change the play's title to Guilty Hands, Manzi lost interest and went to Hollywood to write screenplays, including one of the many versions of the film Clue. The play ultimately began its life several years later in 1987, in Greenwich Village at the Courtyard Playhouse on Grove Street, produced by the Actors Collective, a not-for-profit theater company whose artistic director was Warren Manzi. Commercial producer Armand Hyatt moved the show immediately after its four-week limited run to an Off-Broadway venue.
Since opening on April 18, 1987, Perfect Crime has played for more than 12,000 performances, starring Catherine Russell. It is directed by Jeffrey Hyatt. It played in several New York theaters during its early years:
The show settled into a long run at the Duffy Theater at 46th Street and Broadway, in a renovated burlesque house above the former Times Square landmark, the Howard Johnson's. After that property was sold in 2005, Perfect Crime found a home at the The Theater Center located at the corner of 50th Street and Broadway in Times Square, where it remains.
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