AGATHA CHRISTIE HAD MODEST aspirations for The Mousetrap when her murder mystery opened in 1952. Her producer predicted a 14-month run but the great literary stiletto-wielder replied, “It won’t run that long. Eight months perhaps.”
By 1957, it had become the longest-running play in the West End. Christie received a telegram from Noël Coward saying: “Much as it pains me I really must congratulate you …”
Seven decades on, it has become the hardiest perennial on the boards having just passed its seventieth anniversary (factoring
