The Mousetrap

Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap opened in London's West End on 25 November 1952 and has been playing ever since, apart from a closure in 2020. Over 28,000 performances have been staged.

Context

The Mousetrap began as a short radio play written by Agatha Christie in the early 1950s, and was expanded into a stage mystery. It opened in London on 25 November 1952 and later moved to a different West End theatre in 1974 without the run being treated as a new production. Audiences are traditionally asked not to reveal the identity of the killer.

The long run was interrupted in March 2020, when theatres closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it returned in 2021. That is why the entry says 'apart from a closure in 2020'. The count of performances rises every week, so the figure given is a minimum and was reached well before the present day.

The description 'longest initial run' means the longest continuous run of a first production of a play, not the longest-running show of any kind. Productions of other shows have lasted long in other places, but this play holds the title for an original theatrical run in a single country's capital.

The Mousetrap has been staged in many other countries and has been translated into numerous languages. Its London home since 1974 is St Martin's Theatre, and the show has become a tourist attraction in its own right, with the cast changing regularly even as the production continues.