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Once described by The New York Times' Ben Brantley as "a living Clue board," Agatha Christie's iconic murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been running on London's West End for 70 years, will finally open on Broadway in 2023.
The show, which holds the Guinness World Record for longest-running play in the world (it hit 28,915 performances this year and even the late Queen Elizabeth II attended the 50th-anniversary show!), started off as a radio play. It is a classic whodunit, where spectators are trying to figure out the identity of a murderer.
Although the show's British producer, Adam Spiegel, confirmed to The New York Times that The Mousetrap was certainly going to open on this side of the Atlantic sometime next year, details about the production are scarce. No word yet on who will star in it, what theater it will take over and when exactly it will premiere. According to an official website, it will, however, be a limited engagement.
"New York audiences will be able to see and hear some of the original sights and sounds from the production as it has appeared in London since 1952," reads an official description of the show. "The set will be a loving recreation of Anthony Holland’s design, and for a truly authentic touch, the only surviving piece of the original set—the mantelpiece clock—will be loaned from the London production for the Broadway run. The unique backstage wind machine, imprinted with the original producer’s name and still used today, will also be shipped across the Atlantic."
Just as is the case in the U.K., the play will end every show with a cast member asking all audience members to please keep the name of the killer to themselves.
Although the iconic play did enjoy an Off Broadway run at Maidman Playhouse back in 1960, notions about the reasons why the show has not yet been mounted on Broadway have been circulating for years.
The Times reports that Christie and the show's original producer, Peter Saunders, actually did not want The Mousetrap to make the transfer—at least according to the author's own grandson, Mathew Prichard. However, Prichard recently went on the record to announce his approval, saying that "those reasons are now long lost."