'The Importance of Being Earnest' review — Olly Alexander and Stephen Fry are a delight in this colourful, giddily subversive comedy

Read our review of Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest, now in performances at the Noël Coward Theatre to 10 January 2026.

Summary

• Max Webster's joyfully queer production of Oscar Wilde's play arrives in the West End from the National Theatre
• Pop star Olly Alexander succeeds Ncuti Gatwa as the irresistibly charming Algernon
• Stephen Fry also joins the cast as the indomitable Lady Bracknell – the actor previously played the author in the movie Wilde

Max Webster’s staging of Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest spread plenty of festive cheer at the National Theatre over the Christmas period last year, and it now transfers to the West End with a new cast where it continues to be a colourful, giddily subversive delight.

Launching with anchor character Algernon donning a hot-pink ballgown as if leading a music video or fashion show, and further scenes opening with legs in the air and skirts overhead, this is an Earnest that makes Wilde’s queer subtext about double lives and “Bunburying” explicit – and always in a joyful way. It’s the fantasy world that the ill-fated Wilde himself deserved.

Succeeding Ncuti Gatwa as Algernon, pop star Olly Alexander proves himself to be the genuine article as a stage star. Diminutive and fey, his Algernon is like a spoiled-sweet child who knows just how precociously clever and charming he is, and it would be impossible to stay cross with him with for long (even when he scoffs all the muffins) by virtue of his talent to amuse. The creation of an invalid friend Mr Bunbury permits him to skip town and go his own way, though he’d probably do whatever he wants regardless of such an invention.

Newcomer Kitty Hawthorne’s Gwendolen is the other standout performance among the young lovers; she is extremely assertive and sufficiently sexually aggressive in her dealings with Jack (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) – a man bred in a cloakroom needs a bit of extra encouragement – and such a townie she’s unsteady walking on grass and has to crawl. There’s more than a hint of sapphic attraction involving cake with the sheltered Cecily (Jessica Whitehurst) that’s all part of a carefree merry-go-round where a flurry of partner-swapping is only to be expected.

Donning Lady Bracknell’s richly upholstered gowns, Stephen Fry boasts the circularity having played the author himself in the 1997 film Wilde and continues the sporadic tradition of the role being played as an elevated panto dame. In full regalia, he resembles the great Hermione Gingold in A Little Night Music, but he doesn’t ham it up and remains grounded, beginning in a fairly mellow mood and building up to the crescendo of “A handbag?”.

Shobna Gulati and Hugh Dennis make the most of their small roles as scatterbrained duenna Miss Prism (she might be dressed in governess grey but it’s beautifully embroidered and pleated) and upstanding vicar Rev Chasuble. And as two doddery elderly manservants, Hayley Carmichael provides the finishing touches to the gender-bending and ramps up the physical comedy.

Rae Smith’s enchanting production design is filled with the bright, often gaudy colours that the Victorians adored. A rose garden is irresistibly, prettily artificial, and inside the library at Jack’s country house, the French doors are framed by two muscular male nudes. Lady Bracknell is resplendent in purple and emerald-green taffeta and the frocks feature some magnificent bustles for the ladies, though the no-nonsense Gwendolen eschews frills for tailoring (her peach travelling suit is a beauty). Algernon, even when more conservatively dressed, retains a pop of colour with his signature pink socks.

It's framed with meta nods; the boys bicker in front of the red velvet curtain to fill time during a scene change in one of the funniest exchanges of the show. We still live in a world in which appearances are all-important and, 130 years on from its curtailed premiere, this oh-so-clever bit of frivolity is ageing very nicely indeed.

The Importance of Being Earnest is at the Noël Coward Theatre to 10 January 2026. Book The Importance of Being Earnest tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: The Importance of Being Earnest (Photos by Marc Brenner)