When Agatha Christie’s play “The Mousetrap” was on the verge of beginning its theatrical run in London’s West End 62 years ago on November 25, 1952, the novelist and playwright, in true English fashion, wasn’t very optimistic. She claimed to have told the producer that the engagement would last eight months.

Over six decades later, Agatha Christie is long dead (she died of natural causes at age 85 in 1976), while “The Mousetrap” has passed 25,000 performances on the London stage…the longest running play in history, and still going. Keeping a show continuously running for over 60 years requires some dexterous planning, and the show has weathered plenty of changes on the fly: Over 300 actors and actresses have filled the show's eight roles, the set has been updated at least twice, and most notably the entire production switched theaters over the course of a weekend in 1974. The cast played their last show at the Ambassadors Theatre (its original venue) on March 23, a Saturday, then moved the whole thing next door to the larger St. Martin’s Theatre in time for the next curtain on Monday…a feat that allowed the show to maintain its uninterrupted “first-run” status.

The murder mystery (based on Christie’s radio play “Three Blind Mice,” which itself was based on the actual death of a Welsh boy in 1945) has a twist ending that itself carries a twist: The entire audience is sworn to secrecy before leaving the theater. (You won’t find the secret here, though an internet search will reveal all for the curious.) Christie was serious about preserving the play’s secret: She insisted that the story “Three Blind Mice” never be published as long as “The Mousetrap” was still playing in London. Six decades later, the story has still never been published in the U.K.

https://www.londontheatredirect.com/img/news/TheMousetraptobeperformedinMandarinasitcelebrates60thanniversaryTheMousetrap60.jpg