New York’s oldest play blazes trail as Broadway waits

NEW YORK – 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…