Cast & Creative

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (born Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer. In 1971 she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her contribution to literature.

Christie was born into a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon. Before marrying and starting a family in London, she had served in a Devon hospital during the First World War, tending to troops coming back from the trenches. She was initially an unsuccessful writer with six rejections, but this changed when The Mysterious Affair at Styles, featuring Hercule Poirot, was published in 1920. During the Second World War, she worked as a pharmacy assistant at University College Hospital, London, acquiring a good knowledge of poisons which feature in many of her novels.

Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels have sold roughly 2 billion copies, and her her works come third in the rankings of the world’s most-widely published books, behind only Shakespeare’s works and the Bible. The Mousetrap holds the world record for longest initial run. It opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End on 25 November 1952, and is still running after more than 27,500 performances.

Philip’s work as a Director includes:

In the West End: The Duchess of Malfi, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (Parts One and Two), Taking Sides, Collaboration, Dear Lupin. At the National Theatre: Private Lives, The Heiress, Early Morning National Tours: The Habit of Art (also New York), The Croft, The Mirror Crack’d, Murder in the Dark.

At Chichester Festival Theatre:

Twelfth Night, The Cherry Orchard, The Master Builder, The Deep Blue Sea, Separate Tables, Rattigan’s Nijinsky, A Marvellous Year For Plums.

Other:

Dr Faustus, Hamlet, The Browning Version (Greenwich), The White Devil ( Lyric, Hammersmith), The Comedy of Errors (Regent's Park), The Cocktail Party (Edinburgh International Festival), The Duchess of Malfi (Leeds), The Tempest (Shakespeare’s Rose, York), Four of the 66 Books (The Bush). Online: A Cold Supper Behind Harrods, The Haunting of Alice Bowles (which he also wrote), Barnes People.

Radio includes:

A Patriot For Me, A Soldier and a Maker, An English Tragedy, and his own adaptation of E M Forster’s The Machine Stops.

Philip is also an actor.

www.philipfranks.co.uk

Denise trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and began her career as an actress and singer working in the West End, film, television, and radio. She began her relationship with The Mousetrap by playing Miss Casewell in 1994 and then again in 2001. She became Production Supervisor for the show in 2009 and then Artistic Director in 2018. She has cast every West End production since 2009, tours since 2015 and has cast and directed productions in China, the Far East and India.

Other production and casting credits include: Cinderella and Jack and the Beanstalk (feature films), Bloody Difficult Women (Riverside Studios), The Pargetter Triptych (podcast), Musik (Edinburgh and West End), The Dame (Park Theatre and National Tour), Dead Sheep (Park Theatre and National Tour), An Audience with Jimmy Saville (Park Theatre and Edinburgh), The Roundabout (Park Theatre and New York), Twitstorm, Deny Deny Deny and Twilight Song (Park Theatre), Alex Salmond Unleashed (Edinburgh and National Tour), Once Seen on Blue Peter (Edinburgh Festival), All or Nothing (Arts and Ambassadors Theatre), Don’t Call Me Nigel (National Tour), The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber (National Tour), The Watcher (Waterloo East Theatre), The Translucent Frogs of Quuup (Edinburgh Festival, Ambassadors Theatre, Kings Head), Burton, Clown in the Moon, Wilde Without the Boy (Edinburgh and St James’s Theatre), The Man Called Monkhouse (National Tour), Starting Here, Starting Now (Jermyn Street Theatre).

She is also a recipient of both Stage One Bursary and Start Up Fund for producers and is a member of UK Theatre and the League of Independent Producers.

Brian Fenty is a multi-hyphenate producer, entrepreneur, creative and executive, and is delighted to produce Agatha Christie’s storied and genre-defining work, The Mousetrap, ensuring its continued position as the world’s longest running show.

Brian is the founder and CEO of TodayTix, the global e-commerce leader for cultural experiences with more than 20 million members. With over 10 years of experience in the intersection of technology, commerce, and culture, he leads a portfolio of brands and platforms that connect audiences with the best live entertainment around the world, including TodayTix, Show-Score, and the legendary immersive pioneer, Secret Cinema.

Over the past 25 years, Adam Spiegel has produced extensively in London’s West End as well as various tours throughout the UK and internationally. Most recently Adam has taken over as producer of the world’s longest running show The Mousetrap (St Martin’s Theatre), upholding its prestigious legacy within the West End.

West End credits include: Motown The Musical (Shaftesbury Theatre); The Last Tango (Phoenix Theatre); Hairspray (Shaftesbury Theatre); Fame (Aldwych Theatre and Shaftesbury Theatre); Sister Act (London Palladium); Saturday Night Fever (Apollo Victoria); High School Musical – Live on Stage! (Hammersmith Apollo); Midnight Tango (Aldwych Theatre, Phoenix Theatre); Dance ‘Til Dawn (Aldwych Theatre); Love Story (Duchess Theatre); Crazy for You (Novello Theatre); The Mysteries (Queen’s Theatre) and Birdy (Comedy Theatre).

UK touring credits include: Motown the Musical (2018); Fat Friends the Musical (2017); Tango Moderno (2017); Shirley Valentine (2017); The Mousetrap 60th anniversary tour (2012–2016); To Kill a Mockingbird (2014 and 2015); Love Me Tender (2015)The Producers (2015); Fame; Saturday Night Fever; The Last Tango (2015-2016); Dance ‘Til Dawn (2014 and 2015); Midnight Tango (2011, 2012 and 2013); Strictly Come Dancing Live; High School Musical – Live on Stage!; High School Musical 2; the Creole Choir of Cuba; The Mysteries; Lady Salsa and Five Guys Named Moe.

International touring credits include: Saturday Night Fever (Australasian and Scandinavian tours); Fame (Scandinavian and US tours) and the Creole Choir of Cuba (worldwide).

Other theatre credits include: To Kill a Mockingbird (Barbican Theatre); Amadeus (Wilton’s Music Hall, London); Lady Salsa (Pleasance Theatre) and Promises, Promises (Sheffield Theatres).

Adam produced the annual Laurence Olivier Awards for the Society of London Theatre for five years running from 2004 to 2008. Adam has also previously acted as an arts consultant for both The Sunday Times and Tate Britain. Adam now sits on the board of SOLT and the League of Independent Producers.

Sir Stephen has been a theatre owner and manager since 1984 when he was Joint Chief Executive of Maybox Group which acquired and managed the Albery, Criterion, Donmar Warehouse, Piccadilly, Whitehall and Wyndham’s Theatre, as well as developing the first British owned multiplex cinemas. Maybox was sold in 1989, in which year he became Director of the Victoria Palace Theatre but sold it to Cameron Mackintosh in 2014. Sir Stephen became the Producer of The Mousetrap in 1994. Since then he has also taken on the management of the St Martin’s Theatre as well as the Vaudeville from 1995 – 2002 and the Savoy from 1997 – 2005. In April 2007 Sir Stephen purchased the Ambassadors Theatre, the sister theatre to the St.Martin’s and the original home of The Mousetrap for the first 21 years of its run. Before entering the theatre business Sir Stephen was a financial journalist and a founder director of Euromoney Publications. Sir Stephen was President of the Society of London Theatre from 2002 to 2005; and he was a Trustee of The Theatres Trust 1998 – 2004. In 2007 Sir Stephen became Chairman of RADA, The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

He founded Mousetrap Theatre Projects in 1996 which each year takes thousands of young people, who would not otherwise have the opportunity, to the best of West End Theatre, and is the industry’s leading education charity.

Peter Saunders’ first job was as a very junior assistant cameraman. He graduated to cameraman and film director.
He then produced his own films and lost all his money.
He worked as a reporter on the Daily Express for four years; then as press agent to bandleader Harry Roy. He joined the army when war broke out, rising from private to captain.
He jumped in at the deep end and put on his first play in 1947. He then produced more than 150 shows all over the world including the world record breaking The Mousetrap. In 1981 he was knighted for his services to the theatre. In April 1994 he transferred the management of The Mousetrap to Mousetrap Productions run by Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen. Sir Peter’s hobbies included chess, photography, the music of George Gershwin, telephoning, and collecting wills. He was married to Katie Boyle.