Learn about Christine Baranski's stage work ahead of 'Hay Fever'

The acclaimed star of stage and screen is making her West End debut in Noël Coward's comedy at the Wyndham's Theatre.

Summary

• Christine Baranski leads Noel Coward's Hay Fever in the West End this autumn
• She stars opposite Richard E. Grant at the Wyndham's Theatre
• Her numerous screen credits include Mamma Mia! and The Gilded Age
• She is also a Tony Award-winning stage actress whose shows include The Real Thing and Follies

What bliss! This autumn sees two incredible performers, Tony Award-winning actress Christine Baranski and the Oscar-nominated Richard E. Grant, lead a starry West End revival of Noël Coward’s riotous comedy Hay Fever. The production runs at the Wyndham’s Theatre, directed by Emily Burns.

Baranski and Grant play the bohemian couple Judith and David Bliss, a retired actress and novelist respectively, who, along with their equally eccentric children, Sorel and Simon, each invite a guest to their country house for the weekend. This turns into a mischievous family game which escalates over the course of the play, to the bewilderment of their hapless targets.

This production is Baranski’s long-awaited West End debut, which she has described as “a dream come true”. Learn more about this acclaimed stage and screen actress as you plan your trip to Hay Fever.

Book Hay Fever tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Christine Baranski on screen

Baranski has had an impressive screen career, starring in hilarious comedies, award-winning dramas, and iconic musicals. Her movie credits include The Birdcage, Addams Family Values, Cruel Intentions, Chicago, Into the Woods, and the Mamma Mia! films.

On TV, she starred as best friend Maryann in popular sitcom Cybill, played lawyer Diane Lockhart in drama The Good Wife and spin-off The Good Fight, and currently stars in period drama The Gilded Age. She has also guest-starred on everything from Frasier, Ugly Betty, and The Big Bang Theory to The Simpsons.

But this talented Juilliard-trained actress has a long and distinguished career in the theatre too. Here are some of her key stage credits.

Hamlet

Baranski made her stage debut in 1972 in this mighty tragedy at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park – aka Shakespeare in the Park. She played a small supporting role in the production led by Stacy Keach as Hamlet and James Earl Jones as Claudius.

Company

Following several years of excellent classical work, Baranski made her Off-Broadway debut in Stephen Sondheim’s great musical at Playwrights Horizon in 1980. This well-received revival saw Baranski playing April, the flight attendant who dates the main character Bobby, played by Peter Evans.

Sally and Marsha

Baranski co-starred with legendary stage actress Bernadette Peters in the 1982 Off-Broadway premiere of this odd-couple comedy by Sybille Pearson at the Manhattan Theatre Club. Peters played a South Dakota housewife who moves with her family to the Upper West Side, and Baranski played her neighbour, a native New Yorker.

Sunday in the Park with George

Baranski was part of the original Off-Broadway cast of Sondheim’s gorgeous musical in 1983, although she did not go onto Broadway with the show. She played two supporting characters in the Playwrights Horizon production: Blair Daniels and Clarisse (who was then renamed Yvonne).

The Real Thing

Baranski was highly praised for her performance in Tom Stoppard’s play at Broadway’s Plymouth Theatre in 1984. She starred as Charlotte, the sharp-witted actress wife of protagonist Henry, alongside Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close, directed by Mike Nichols. Baranski won a Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

Rumors

Baranski won her second Tony for this brilliant production of Neil Simon’s farcical comedy at Broadway’s Broadhurst Theatre in 1988. She played Chris Gorman, who attends a chaotic anniversary party for Charley Brock, deputy mayor of New York, and his wife. Hijinks ensue as they try to hide a series of unfortunate occurrences from the guests.

Lips Together, Teeth Apart

Baranski was part of the original cast of Terrence McNally’s play about two straight couples who spend a weekend in the gay enclave of Fire Island. The Off-Broadway premiere took place in 1991 at the Manhattan Theatre Club, and the show then transferred to the Lucille Lortel Theatre in 1992. The cast also featured Nathan Lane, Swoosie Kurtz and Anthony Heald. Baranski won a Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actress.

Sweeney Todd

Baranski starred as pie-maker Mrs Lovett, opposite Frasier actor Kelsey Grammer, in a concert version of the deliciously macabre musical at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in 1999. She then reprised her performance at the Kennedy Centre in 2002, this time opposite Brian Stokes Mitchell, for a special Sondheim Celebration event.

Follies

In 2007, Baranski played film star Carlotta Campion in Sondheim’s magnificent Follies, about a group of showgirls (and their admirers) reuniting in later life, for New York City Center’s Encores! concert. That meant Baranski got to belt out the showstopping “I’m Still Here”. She returned to the show in 2015 for a concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall, this time playing the lead role of glamorous but unhappily married Phyllis Stone.

Boeing-Boeing

Baranski impressed in another great farce, by French playwright Marc Camoletti and translated by Beverley Cross, as part of an all-star Broadway revival in 2008 directed by Matthew Warchus. The cast also featured Mark Rylance, Bradley Whitford, Gina Gershon, Mary McCormack, and Kathryn Hahn, and the production won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play.

A Little Night Music

Baranski played Countess Charlotte Malcolm in a benefit concert version of Sondheim’s musical in 2009, alongside the stellar cast of Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha Richardson, Marc Kudisch, and Victor Garber. The concert was in support of New York’s Roundabout Theatre Company.

Hay Fever

Baranski is now back on stage and finally making her exciting West End debut in Coward’s comedy of, as she rightly puts it, “appalling manners”. The actress has recalled seeing her first West End play in 1971 when she was a drama student, and has said how much she’s looking forward to being back in London, “a city I adore”, for this major revival, starring opposite Richard E. Grant.

Book Hay Fever tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Main photo credit: Christine Baranski (Photo by Emilio Madrid). Inset: Baranski in The Gilded Age (Photo courtesy of the show)