In Tough Economy, 'Crime' Pays

"The Healthiest Person Alive," Catherine Russell, Will be Inducted Into The Guinness Book of World Records for Not Missing a Day of Work Since 1987

NEW YORK, March 30 /PRNewswire/ -- How many sick days have you taken in the last 22 years? How many vacation days? For Catherine Russell, "The Cal Ripken, Jr. of Broadway," a New York actress/general manager/teacher/producer who works a 98-hour work week, the answer is zero. Today Russell was inducted into The Guinness Book of World Records for not missing a day of work since 1987.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090330/NY91359 )

"Catherine's world-class achievement is without question truly historic," said Danny Girton, Jr, Adjudications Executive at Guinness World Records. At a time when people are uncertain about job security, her story is both inspiring and a lesson in how to survive by wearing multiple hats to thrive in a fledgling economy.

Russell is the general manager and star of Perfect Crime, the longest-running play in the history of New York theater. She has performed the role of psychiatrist (and potential cold-blooded killer) Margaret Thorne Brent 8,963 times consistently since the play opened on April 18, 1987. She performs the play eight times a week and has only missed four performances in 22 years, to attend her siblings' weddings. She has spent over two years of her life onstage (18,000 hours!)

But Russell does not merely show up to the theater to act. She general manages The Snapple Theater Center, the multi-theater complex on the corner of 50th Street and Broadway which houses Perfect Crime and which she built from scratch in 2006. She attends to all aspects of the theater's business and maintenance and is as comfortable around a prop gun as she is a nail gun, vacuum cleaner or, yes, the dreaded toilet plunger.

She single-handedly scored corporate sponsorship from Snapple and gutted and converted a former beauty school into the two-story legit theater that now exists in the heart of Times Square. The Snapple Theater Center is New York City's only corporate-sponsored Off Broadway theater.

Russell is on the faculty at Baruch College and New York University and is one of the producers of The Fantasticks revival also playing at The Snapple Theater Center. She lives in Hell's Kitchen with her boyfriend, restaurateur Patrick Robustelli, and says that when they get married it will be on a Tuesday, Perfect Crime's night off.

Russell will be formally inducted into Guinness at a ceremony at the theater on April 18, 2009, the night of Perfect Crime's historic 22nd Anniversary.

The Snapple Theater Center is located at 1627 Broadway (at 50th Street) New York, NY 10019.

SOURCE DBS Press