New York’s oldest play blazes trail as Broadway waits

Broadway is not due to return until September but New York's longest-running play is already back thanks to its indomitable lead who has played the same role over 13,500 times.

Catherine Russell, 65, is the driving force behind "Perfect Crime," a rollicking whodunit that has been on Big Apple billboards since 1987.

"I'm very determined. And whenever people tell me, you can't do something, I'm like, 'Screw you. Watch me do it,'" she tells AFP.

Not only is Russell the show's main actor, she is also the manager of the Theater Center that puts on the play and a "dynamo" according to co-star Charles Geyer.

"I can do 180 push-ups in a row. Marine push-ups, not girl push-ups," insists Russell, as if anyone would dare dispute the fact.

When performance venues shut in March 2020 as the pandemic spread like wildfire through New York, Russell kept busy so as not to get too depressed.

She repainted the theater, repaired a few of its armchairs and bought a ventilation system to help keep the air clean.
When Russell heard that bowling alleys were going to be allowed to reopen at the end of August last year, while theaters remained shut, she thought: "This is crazy!"

"Bowling alleys are great. But if you can bowl, you should be able to go to a theatre and sit with a mask and watch a show," Russell says.

So she sued the city government and the state's governor to try to force them to reopen small performance venues like hers.

In early March Governor Andrew Cuomo ruled that theaters could reopen at 25 percent capacity, later updated to 33 percent, which is still not financially viable for most venues.

Russell is continuing her lawsuit to try to obtain at least 50 percent seating.

On April 9, she...