A Mouse Still in the House

Today, marks the anniversary of when Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap opened on London's West End.  That was on November 25, 1952 -- 71 years ago today.  It's still running, after over 28,000 performances.

By way of comparison, not long ago Phantom of the Opera closed as the longest-ever running production in Broadway history.  It ran for 13,981 performances, over the course of 35 years.  If it hadn't close and played for another 35 years…it still would be short of The Mousetrap.  And that's if The Mousetrap closed tomorrow.

Even the longest-running show in New York, off-Broadway's musical The Fantasticks, which had a remarkable run of 42 years and 17,162 performances fell far short, just over half as long.  And again, The Mousetrap is still running.  

I have a theory about that.  At some point long ago, it stopped by just a long-running play and instead become a tourist attraction, a stop to make when in London.

As a kidling, I saw The Mousetrap on a family trip to Europe in 1966, the play's 14th year.  A couple years later on another family trip, I picked up a poster which I have up on my walls.

At the time, I was a little sorry that the poster had as many years as "16."  Little did I know how paltry that number would be.

When I saw the play in 1966, I went with my older brother.  (Our folks went to a different play that day.)  I was very excited about going, since I liked Agatha Christie mysteries and had heard so much about this monumentally long-running play.  I'd read the novella beforehand, so I knew whodunnit -- but at intermission I asked my brother who he thought the killer was. (Don't worry, I won't give it away.) He kept changing his guess -- "No, wait, don't tell me, I think it's..." -- and I just politely sat there smiling at him.  (Fun fact:  He didn't guess it.)

​I do remember after the play, when we waited for our parents to leave the theater next door -- it was a matinee -- the cast eventually left the Ambassadors, and we spoke with one of the actors, and I still have the program he signed.  I didn't know who he was, and while he might have done a lot in London theater after that, he didn't become known in the U.S.  But it was fun.  And I still have the program.  (Sorry, "programme.")

The Mousetrap has never played on Broadway, though there are plans to finally do so.  In fact, they were trying for this year, but clearly that scheduling didn't pan out.  

That said, if you've seen the 2022 movie See How They Run with Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan and Adrien Brody, it's a fun, comic-murder mystery that's centered around a murder that occurs backstage during the early days of The Mousetrap.  The story is totally fictional, but real details are mixed in -- including Richard Attenborough being a character in the film (having starred in the original production, as is the show's producer John Woolf (who won an Oscar for production the movie musical Oliver!), it taking place at the Ambassador Theatre and a few other matters, as well as Agatha Christie taking part in the film, as well.

And speaking of film, the most fascinating story surrounding The Mousetrap is that when movie producers signed a contract with Agatha Christie to make a movie of the play, it was with the one stipulation that no movie could be made until…the play closed!  That was 71 years ago.

​In another odd twist, somewhat similar to that of the movie rights, Christie requested that the short story not be published in the United Kingdom as long as the play was running in London's West End.  When I read about that, I couldn't figure out how I was able to have read it.  But it turns out that the story was allowed to be published in the United States and appeared in the collection Three Blind Mice and Other Stories.

I've still kept my copy all these years.  A whopping 45-cents.  And the original title is duly noted on the cover.
​

And of course, as old as my copy of the book is, it doesn't compare to how old the play is and has been running.

And Ol' Man, Mousetrap, it just keeps rolling along...