St Martin's Theatre

St Martin's Theatre, West End theatre, situated on St Martin's Lane, and designed by W. G. R. Sprague. It opened in 1916 and the first show produced there was a comic musical, Houp La! The theatre soon became notorious for staging Damaged Goods, a play by Eugène Brieux on the subject of venereal disease. The St Martin's has presented plays by John Galsworthy, Frederick Lonsdale, and Noel Coward, and since the war enjoyed successes with Hugh Williams’ The Grass is Greener, John Mortimer’s The Wrong Side of the Park, and the thriller Sleuth (1970) by Anthony Shaffer, which ran for five years before transferring to Broadway. In 1974 the St Martin’s became home to the murder-mystery The Mousetrap, by Agatha Christie, which transferred from the Ambassadors Theatre. The production, which holds the record for the world's longest-running play, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2002.