London's long runner The Mousetrap has been sold to a new producing group, a consortium reportedly led by TodayTix CEO Brian Fenty. The Agatha Christie murder mystery, which has been running more or less uninterrupted since 1952, is the world's longest-running play.
The complete producer changeover is a rarity in the theatre, but then so is a play running 72 years and counting. Fenty's consortium purchased the production from Adam Spiegel, who himself acquired it in 2018 from Stephen Waley-Cohen. And even Waley-Cohen was not the original producer. He took over the show from original producer Peter Saunders in 1994, making Fenty's consortium the fourth lead producer. Adam Spiegel Productions will, however, continue to oversee daily operations at the St. Martin's Theatre, the production's second West End home.
The Mousetrap began life as a 1947 radio play written by Christie for Queen Mary's birthday, titled Three Blind Mice. The expanded stage adaptation premiered in 1952 at Nottingham's Theatre Royal, moving to the Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End later the same year. After taking the mantle of the West End's longest-running production from Chu Chin Chow in 1958, the play continued at the Ambassadors until 1974 when it moved to its current home at the St. Martin's. The production's only major interruption was the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown, which darkened the play for 14 months along with most live performances worldwide. The Mousetrap reopened in May 2021.
A Broadway transfer was announced as in the works in 2022, with performances set to begin in 2023, to be produced by Kevin McCollum and Spiegel. That run has never materialized, and no further plans have been announced.
The current West End cast includes Lucy Doyle as Mollie Ralston, Daniel Cech-Lucas as Giles Ralston, Lynton Appleton as Christopher Wren, Jules Melvin as Mrs. Boyle, Ben Onwukwe as Major Metcalf, Elyssia Roe as Miss Casewell, Lorenzo Martelli as Mr. Paravicini, and Sam Stafford as Detective Sgt. Trotter. Understudies Sam Hollis, Georgina Duncan, Georgie Rhys, Ben Riddle, and Clive Marlowe round out the cast.
Philip Franks is the current director, with the production originally helmed by Peter Cotes. The creative team also includes costume supervisor Janet Hudson Holt.
Visit The-Mousetrap.co.uk.
