The theatre
St Martin's is the smallest theatre in this part of the West End, seating 553 over three levels, and the Georgian-style interior with its dark panelling is unusual among London theatres of the period. It is privately owned, which is rare, and has effectively been a single-show house for fifty years.
The Mousetrap
Agatha Christie's play opened in London in 1952 at the Ambassadors Theatre next door, and moved to St Martin's in 1974 without missing a performance. It has run continuously ever since and is the longest-running play in the world by a wide margin. The audience is asked at the end not to reveal the ending, a convention that has held for over seventy years.
Good to know
Leicester Square and Covent Garden stations are both a few minutes away, and West Street is quiet compared with the surrounding roads. The theatre is small enough that there are few genuinely poor seats.
