To mark the beginning of The Mousetrap's 50th year, a celebration lunch was held at the Savoy hotel. The theatrical phenomenon that is The Mousetrap celebrated the advent of its 50th year (which begins next month, when the play celebrates its 49th birthday) Oct. 11 at the Savoy hotel, the scene of numerous Mousetrap parties and dinners in the years since Agatha Christie's thriller, adapted for the stage from a radio play, opened at the Ambassadors: its home is now the neighbouring St Martin's Theatre, where it has been thrilling audiences for a quarter of a century.

The lunch, hosted by producer Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen, was attended by the theatre's senior management, by director David Turner and by representatives of every annual cast since the first one. Among those representing the original cast were Richard (Lord) Attenborough and his wife, actress Sheila Sim (Lady Attenborough), while the original producer of The Mousetrap, Sir Peter Saunders, was represented by his wife, actress Katie Boyle (Lady Saunders).

One ex-cast member unable to make the lunch was writer, actor and director Ray Cooney, who is currently directing Joan Collins in Over The Moon at the Old Vic, and whose farce, Run For Your Wife 2 is playing to capacity houses at the Vaudeville Theatre, a few yards away from the Savoy.

The Mousetrap's 50th birthday will be celebrated Nov. 26, 2002.

For information call the St. Martins Theatre Box Office: 011-44-020-7836 1443

by Paul Webb Theatrenow