A DECADE ago, an entry on The Mousetrap in the Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre noted that audiences for the long-running West End phenomenon were said to have consumed more than 395 tons of ice cream and 80,000 gallons of drinks, as backstage staff ironed about 100 miles of shirts.
As the Christie murder mystery sails past its 70th anniversary (the West End run began at the Ambassadors Theatre on November 25, 1952, after a provincial tour starting at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, the previous month), there is a danger of greeting the fact has been a record-breaker for years, having entered in 1958 when its 2,239th performance made it the longest-running show of any kind in British theatre history and possibly the world.
