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It’s just a short hop across the Thames from the National Theatre, where Max Webster’s sizzling staging of The Importance of Being Earnest premiered last year, to its new home at the Noël Coward Theatre. Yet in that shift it has undergone a complete recasting — the sort of move that might draw a withering remark from the formidable Lady Bracknell, now played by Stephen Fry. And in a comedy that focuses so brilliantly and subtly on role-play and identity, the changes raise interesting questions about the identity of the production itself.
The framework is the same: Webster and designer Rae Smith have created a gorgeous glitterball of a piece, a show that brings Wilde’s barely sub subtext blazing to the fore, casts a modern eye on his astute depiction of performative identity, and joyously celebrates queer culture. A wordless prologue puts Algernon Moncrieff — now played by Olly Alexander — at the heart of a fabulous fantasia in a hot-pink ballgown, surrounded by the cross-dressed cast. It sets the tone for what will play out as a heteronormative romantic comedy but stylised to the max and delivered with a huge wink.
Smith’s sets work as theatrical pastiche of both social backgrounds and dramatic convention — an elegant drawing room; a country garden — and are a delight to the eye. The costumes turn Victorian fashion into thoroughly fine clubbing outfits. There’s a defiance to the whole thing, honouring the fact that out of the double life that Wilde had to conduct, he created one of the most enduring comedies in the English language.
But the new cast bring different energies within that framework. Alexander is wonderfully mischievous and sharp as Algie, frequently acknowledging that the audience is in on the act, while Nathan Stewart-Jarrett is impulsive and earnest as Jack. Kitty Hawthorne as Gwendolen and Jessica Whitehurst as Cecily revel in their characters’ shrewd determination to play the system. There’s a lovely performance from Hugh Dennis as the timorous Reverend Chasuble and an even better one from Hayley Carmichael, who steals the show with her exquisite physical precision as first the impervious butler Lane and then the ancient retainer Merriman, who, in her performance, appears to have been tottering about Jack’s country home for several centuries.
And then there is Fry, whose Lady Bracknell, upholstered like a Victorian furniture shop on the move, puts the imp into imperious. A towering presence, high and haughty, he rolls the redoubtable battleaxe’s famous lines around his mouth like marbles before thrusting them into the room. Fry’s love of wordplay comes into its own here — there’s a relish to his savouring of Wilde’s dialogue that is irresistible.
He’s mightily enjoyable, without straying into pantomime dame territory, and he also hints that Lady Bracknell might have a better grasp on things than the young people imagine. What he doesn’t bring, which Sharon D Clarke did in the previous casting, is a certain sense of icy gravity: the understanding that, superficial and hypocritical as Victorian society might be, not keeping up the charade could cost you dearly.
And overall, the staging brings masses of style but a little less in the way of substance. There are places too where the gags are pushed so hard that they lose their incisiveness. That holds it back. Even so, this is an exuberant, joyous, celebratory evening. And it fits the Noël Coward Theatre as neatly as Algie’s precision-tooled suits.
★★★★☆
To January 10 2026, nationaltheatre.org.uk
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