Our guide to the long-running London Theatre musicals, drama and comedies playing in the West End.
West End Theatre is famous for its long-running, multi-year shows, with a number of productions consistently playing across years and decades, delighting millions of people from the UK and around the world.
The queen of long-runners is, of course, Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap at the St Martin’s Theatre, which opened in London in 1952 – and has never closed since, ranking it as the world’s longest running stage production.
Giving The Mousetrap a run for its money is The Woman in Black at the Fortune Theatre, also a thriller but a mere upstart having opened in 1989.
In terms of musicals, it is hard to beat Les Miserables at the Sondheim Theatre, which opened in London in 1985 and is easily the West End’s long-running musical ever. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre opened a year later in London, in 1986. It does beat Les Mis as Broadway’s longest ever running show.
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