Having seen and loved this production of the Importance of Being Earnest when it was at the National Theatre, I was excited to see it on its West End transfer, with a brand new cast, at the Noël Coward Theatre. With the same creative team, direction, and design, I expected to love it again – and I wasn’t disappointed. 

From the first moment, Olly Alexander’s Algernon sets the mood: playful, impish, and gloriously self-aware. He sits at the piano, smirking at the audience as though letting us in on a secret. It’s cheeky, flirty, and very funny, immediately breaking that barrier between stage and audience. Where Ncuti Gatwa’s Algernon in the National run had a sultry, sexy confidence, Alexander gives us something more mischievous – a host who knows the night’s going to get a bit Wilde and can’t wait to take us along with him.

The whole thing looks as beautiful as ever. Rae Smith’s design is a masterpiece of colour and wit – Victorian elegance shot through with bold, modern flair. The set is identical to the National version, but the costumes use new fabrics and slightly tweaked designs, keeping the same vivid style and gorgeous palette. It’s a visual feast that captures the absurdity and joy of Wilde’s world.

Alexander is so at ease on stage that you can’t help but grin whenever he’s there. He’s all charm and control, commanding the space without effort – the perfect host for Wilde’s world of lies, flirtations, and cucumber sandwiches.

Nathan Stewart-Jarrett’s Jack Worthing, meanwhile, is all nervous energy and exaggerated campness. At times it feels like he’s playing for the laugh a little too hard, flouncing and flailing in exaggerated bursts of panic, but as the show goes on, he relaxes into it and starts to shine. His chemistry with Kitty Hawthorne’s brilliant Gwendolen Fairfax absolutely fizzes.

Hawthorne is a revelation – hilarious, commanding, and deliciously expressive. Every time she says the name “Ernest” she growls it like a forbidden indulgence, half desire, half hunger. Her comic timing is impeccable, and she steals more than a few scenes. The physical comedy between her and Stewart-Jarrett early on is gloriously silly – one of those moments that makes you both cringe and cackle at once.

And then there’s Sir Stephen Fry as Lady Bracknell (such a pleasure to write “Sir” Stephen Fry – it was long overdue in my opinion). What a joy to behold. He enters to a round of applause, looking utterly regal in a magnificent gown, face set in that perfect expression of withering disdain. Every line lands. Every pause earns a laugh. It’s everything you hope for from Stephen Fry in this role – grand, razor-sharp, and very, very funny.

Jessica Whitehurst gives us a bright and spirited Cecily Cardew – a little less naïve than in the previous production – while Shobna Gulati as Miss Prism is wonderfully funny, her tightly pulled-back grey hair giving her a greying Sonic-the-Hedgehog look that somehow works perfectly. Her comic instincts are spot on, and her chemistry with the ever-bumbling rector – Hugh Dennis – is pure joy.

There are a few clever new touches throughout the production – a handful of extra gags, including one cheeky nod to a certain well-known London gay pub that got a huge laugh from those who caught it. They’re small additions, but they keep the show feeling spontaneous and alive.

Another of those clever additions comes during the front-of-curtain muffin scene between Alexander and Stewart-Jarrett – a brilliantly judged comic interlude that breaks the fourth wall for a sly joke about scene changes. It’s a lovely touch that shows how self-aware this production is, and it lands perfectly.

Then there’s the scene – the one everyone’s waiting for. The famous “handbag” moment is pitch-perfect. Fry draws it out with delicious precision, each shocked syllable more exaggerated than the last, and the audience is already in hysterics before he even finishes the line. Stewart-Jarrett sets it up beautifully, recounting the story of being found in a handbag with complete sincerity and pride, entirely oblivious to why anyone might find that cause for concern. It gives Fry the perfect springboard for Lady Bracknell’s mounting outrage. It’s Fry’s scene from start to finish – a masterclass in timing, delivery, and sheer comic control – and the audience were in stitches.

Nicola T. Chang’s subtle sound design adds lovely little flourishes too – including a cartoonish burst of birdsong every time Algernon kisses Cecily. It’s a playful, tiny wink to the show’s heightened, farcical world.

Haley Carmichael’s double act as Lane and Merriman is genius. As Lane, she’s deadpan and unimpressed; as Merriman, she’s practically falling apart, wandering into scenes with vacant confusion that brings the house down. It’s beautifully judged clowning.

By the time Fry’s Lady Bracknell sweeps back in for the final act, the whole thing feels like a joyous fever dream – perfectly paced chaos anchored by razor sharp wit and physical comedy that never misses. It’s beautifully choreographed madness, and the audience stays right with it to the end.

It’s a joy to see a show that I loved at the National return with an equally brilliant cast. It’s the same production that dazzled at the Lyttelton, yet these new performances bring their own magic to it. The wit is as sharp as ever, the design still sublime, and the laughter absolutely relentless. It was a joyful riot and I will probably go again – though next time, I might go under an assumed name. Maybe Earnest… What could go wrong?

The Importance of Being Earnest runs at the Noël Coward Theatre until 10th January 2026.

Book tickets now at nationaltheatre.org.uk

Words by Nick Barr

Photos by Marc Brenner