Long theatre runs

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    I remember seeing Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap “ at a West End theatre when I was in my 30’s. The reason for the choice? It was billed as “the longest running play in the history of the London Theatre.” It has probably been surpassed since then. What are your memories of theatrical events?

    “The Phantom of the Opera,” the longest-running show in Broadway history, is set to close in February.

    Friday, September 16, 2022 4:47 PM ET

    The show will commemorate its 35th anniversary in January before playing its final Broadway performance on Feb. 18.

    Apart from a brief covid-related gap The Mousetrap still continues to play in the West End. I've seen it twice: once when my parents took me and the next time when I took the girlfriend who became my late wife. (She became my wife then became late, obvs.) Perhaps I ought to book tickets for the grandchildren?


    My most abiding theatrical memory is of seeing a young slip of a girl running onto the stage of the Barbican as Cordelia in King Lear. It was an aged-down Judy Dench who must have been at least 35 at the time but whose stage presence was indisputable even then.


    Out of the theatre, the longest running radio serial in the world is BBC Radio's The Archers. When it started in 1950, June Spencer was a little old for the part of Peggy Perkins but that doesn't really matter on the radio. This August past, June Spencer retired from the cast of The Archers. She was 103 years old and the "young" Peggy Perkins, now Peggy Woolley, was a mere 98.