Warren Manzi, at 60; wrote N.Y.'s longest-running play . Handout/New
York Times Warren Manzi's Off Broadway thriller "Perfect Crime" is the
longest-running play in New York theater history. While growing up in
Lawrence, Warren Manzi needed only to look around the house to find
early inspiration for what years later would become "Perfect Crime,"
the thriller he wrote that is the longest-running play in New York City
theater history. "My mother is my greatest influence because when I was
very young she used to read all kinds of mysteries," he said in a 2011
interview with playwright Adam Szymkowicz that is posted on
Szymkowicz's blog . "There were always mystery books around the house.
At a young age I read Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, Perry Mason,
Sherlock Holmes. I became interested in drama in high school and
decided to put the two of those things together. "Perfect Crime" has
logged more than 11,800 performances during the nearly 29 years it has
played Off Broadway. With 17,162 performances, "The Fantasticks" holds
the record for musicals, but Mr. Manzi's "Perfect Crime" has set the
mark for straight plays. Mr. Manzi, who left New York years ago and
moved to Methuen to care for his elderly mother, died of pneumonia last
Thursday in Holy Family Hospital in Methuen. He was 60. "He loved the
fact that 'Perfect Crime' was like a perpetual motion machine, but he
was looking beyond that," said his companion of several years, Mary
Hill of Methuen. She said Mr. Manzi "was working on a lot of other
things when he died," including a novel, some short stories, and a
couple of two-part dramas. For now, however, "Perfect Crime" is his
lasting creative legacy. After it opened on April 18, 1987, D.J.R.
Bruckner began his New York Times review: "Warren Manzi has the makings
of a crackling thriller in 'Perfect Crime' ... Its tension holds tight
even while it ridicules conventions of the genre. A man is murdered
onstage - maybe. A bumbling detective is convinced that, although there
is no corpse, the man really was murdered - by his wife, a young and
threateningly intelligent psychiatrist, who may also be involved in the
murder of two women whose corpses have not disappeared. Bruckner
ultimately found the play flawed, but he praised Mr. Manzi for giving
"funny lines in constantly surprising situations to the detective, the
psychiatrist, and one of her patients," and added: "It is a tribute to
Mr. Manzi's writing that, when the detective asks a question, people in
the audience sometimes murmur replies. The complexity of the plotting
is such that the play's website features a question and answer section,
with a warning that it could ruin surprises, at
www.perfect-crime.com/show/spoilers . "Warren was a brilliant writer,"
said Armand Hyatt of Amesbury, a lawyer who is one of Mr. Manzi's
dozens of cousins and who assisted him with legal matters. Hyatt and
Mr. Manzi were among the 56 grandchildren of Michele Manzi, who was
born in Quindici, Italy, and the former Angelina Grillo, who was from
Marzano Appio, Italy. Warren Michael Manzi was born in Manchester,
N.H., the only child of Flora A. Manzi. She had been one of Michele and
Angelina's 11 children, and she was a single mother as she raised Mr.
Manzi in Lawrence. Hyatt said she ran the finance department of an
electric contracting company that one of her brothers founded. As a boy
in Lawrence, Mr. Manzi attended Holy Rosary School, graduated from
Central Catholic High School, and became involved with oratory
competitions, Hyatt said. Mr. Manzi graduated from the College of the
Holy Cross and received a master's from the Yale School of Drama. Among
his inspirations as a playwright, "Shakespeare is number one," he said
in the interview with Szymkowicz. Other theatrical touchstones included
"Chekhov, Moliere, Ib-sen, Strindberg. Pinter, Tennessee Williams, and
Pirandello. I'm a huge fan of John Osborne and Tom Stoppard is a
genius. Working with the Garrett Players of Lawrence, Mr. Manzi
directed plays including Harold Pinter's "The Birthday Party" and
Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot. He took productions to the New
England Theatre Conference's competitions and was a five-time best
director winner, according to biographical information on the website
of his publisher, Samuel French Inc. At 25, Mr. Manzi was Tim Curry's
understudy for "Amadeus" on Broadway. Curry played the title role of
Mozart and Ian McKellen was Salieri. Hyatt said that the first time Mr.
Manzi filled in for Curry, "Ian Mc-Kellen bowed to Warren at the end
because he gave such a great performance. Mr. Manzi wrote an early
version of "Perfect Crime" while he was Curry's understudy. A producer
optioned the play for Broadway, but it was never produced. According to
his publisher, at that time Mr. Manzi was the youngest American to have
a play optioned for Broadway. As he reworked "Perfect Crime," Mr. Manzi
moved to California and acted in the movies. His credits include "The
Manhattan Project" (1986) and "Nuts" (1987), according to imdb.com. His
publisher's website said he also completed four screenplays that have
not been produced. Returning to New York, Mr. Manzi became artistic
director of a not-for-profit actors group and staged productions
including Chekhov's "The Three Sisters," according to the 2012 book
"Blood on the Stage, 1975-2000: Milestone Plays of Crime, Mystery, and
Detection. In 1995, Mr. Manzi married Ellen Margaret Michelin, who died
of complications from kidney ailments a few months after their
marriage, said Hyatt. "Warren was crushed," he said. Mr. Manzi left New
York to live with his mother in Methuen when she was older and her
health was frail, Hill said. Flora Manzi died in 2003. Hill said Mr.
Manzi was pleased with the success of "Perfect Crime. "It was quite
important to him," she said, "and he liked the fact that it continued
to play in New York when he was up here. Living in Methuen, however,
seemed to provide him with the necessary space and distance to keep
writing. "He wanted to be hidden. He didn't want people to be able to
find him," Hill said, adding that "he was a wonderful man. In addition
to Hill and Hyatt, Mr. Manzi left many cousins and an extended family.
A funeral Mass was said Tuesday in Holy Rosary Church of Corpus Christi
Parish in Lawrence, where Mr. Manzi and his mother had been
parishioners. "We decided that for Auntie Flora's sake, we would have
the funeral on her birthday," Hyatt said. Along with redoing the early
draft of "Perfect Crime," Mr. Manzi engaged in rewrites once it was in
production. At times, he handed new lines to actors as they prepared to
step onto the stage. "I've learned how to learn lines quickly,"
Catherine Russell, who has performed in the role of Margaret Thorne
Brent for all but four shows since the play opened in 1987, told The
New York Times. "I always wanted 'Perfect Crime' to be a commercial
thriller but I didn't know it would take off the way it did," Mr. Manzi
told Szymkowicz in 2011. "I knew that all the rewrites when it first
opened strengthened the core of the play. We've gained a lot by all the
work we've done along the way. Bryan Marquard can be reached at
bryan.marquard@xxxxxxxxx . .
