Learn about the production history of 'The Importance of Being Earnest'

Max Webster's acclaimed National Theatre production of Oscar Wilde's 1895 "trivial comedy for serious people" transfers to the West End for a limited run.

Summary

The original 1895 production closed prematurely due to Wilde's arrest and imprisonment
The play provided escapism during World War Two
Lady Bracknell is a plum role for character actresses - but wasn't always treated as a star turn
Max Webster's colourful and queer new production stars Stephen Fry and Olly Alexander

Julia Rank29 September, 2025, 23:00

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest first enchanted audiences in February 1895 but, soon after, things went tragically wrong for Wilde when he was arrested and convicted for "gross indecency".

However, in the 130 years since its premiere, it has been firmly established as one of the world’s most popular plays and is said to be second only to Hamlet in quotability.

The play can currently be seen in the West End in Max Webster’s effervescent new production starring Stephen Fry and Olly Alexander. Over the years, the play has attracted countless delightful young actors, and many of the finest character actors. Read on to learn more about the play’s history.

Book The Importance of Being Earnest tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

The Importance of Being Earnest - LT - 1200

Early productions

It all started so well. The original production of The Importance of Being Earnest received a rapturous reception when it opened at St James’s Theatre on 14 February 1895 (Valentine’s Day). Allan Aynesworth, who played Algernon, later recalled: “In my fifty-three years of acting, I never remember a greater triumph than the first night of The Importance of Being Earnest... The audience rose in their seats and cheered and cheered again”.

However, Wilde was arrested for “gross indecency” seven weeks later and imprisoned for two years. Despite attempts to control the damage by erasing his name from the publicity material, the production closed on 8 May after only 83 performances. Rose Leclercq set the model for Lady Bracknell (though the play didn’t become a star vehicle for famous character actresses – despite the character’s fairly limited stage time – until later) and Irene Vanbrugh, who went on to have an illustrious 50-year career, played Gwendolen.

The original Broadway production opened on 22 April 1895 and closed after 16 performances. The play premiered in Australia in August 1895 and was a great success (presumably news of Wilde’s disgrace in England hadn’t reached the Antipodes).

Due to Wilde’s outcast status, the play was billed as “By the author of Lady Windermere’s Fan” when it received its first West End revival in 1902 (two years after his death). The second revival, at St James’s Theatre, home of the original production, played for 316 performances in 1909 (Aynesworth and George Alexander reprised their original roles of Algernon and Jack).

Interwar years

In the early revivals, the play was performed in present-day costume, and it wasn’t until the 1923 production at Theatre Royal Haymarket in the heart of the West End that it became fixed in its original 1890s setting (though some productions have experimented with contemporary settings or other time periods, such as the Swinging Sixties).

John Gielgud played Jack to his aunt Mabel Terry-Lewis’s (the niece of Ellen Terry) Lady Bracknell at the Lyric Hammersmith in 1930, and he reprised the role at the Globe (now the Gielgud) Theatre nine years later with Edith Evans as Lady B. The production was revived on several occasions during and after World War II – there could be no more perfect escapism during difficult times – and it could be said that Wilde was “rehabilitated” when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth attended a performance at Theatre Royal Haymarket in 1946.

The modern era in the West End

In 1982, the National Theatre’s first production of the play was directed by Peter Hall, in which Judi Dench gave her first Lady Bracknell at the age of 48, with Martin Jarvis as Jack, Nigel Havers as Algernon, as and Zoë Wanamaker as Gwendolen. A decade later, Nicholas Hytner’s production at the Aldwych Theatre, with Alex Jennings as Jack and Richard E Grant as Algernon, accentuated the queer subtext. However, when asked if the production would transfer to Broadway, Maggie Smith (playing Lady Bracknell, of course) responded, “Broadway? I wouldn’t take it to Woking.”

In 1999, Patricia Routledge lent her incomparable physical comedy and rich contralto voice to Christopher Morahan’s production at the Savoy Theatre. LondonTheatre.co.uk’s reviewer observed that Routledge “captures the essence of the character brilliantly, looking and sounding very fierce”. Fellow sitcom queen (and trained classical actress) Penelope Keith led the show at the Vaudeville Theatre in 2008, directed by Peter Gill. LondonTheatre.co.uk’s reviewer noted that “Keith has sensibly recognised that it's not necessary to be over-the-top in portraying the larger-than-life Lady Bracknell – the lines do that for her. Yet Keith still stamps her unique authority on the character”.

Lucy Bailey’s “age blind” production, in which Martin Jarvis and Nigel Havers reprised the roles they played at the National Theatre over three decades previously (plus Sian Phillips as Lady B), received mixed reviews at the Harold Pinter Theatre in 2014. A year later, David Suchet donned drag as Lady B in Adrian Noble’s production at the Vaudeville Theatre.

Max Webster’s vibrant new production was first performed at the National Theatre last Christmas and now transfers to the Noël Coward Theatre for a strictly limited run. The show stars polymath Stephen Fry (who played the author himself in the 1997 film Wilde) and pop star and actor Olly Alexander. You can learn more about the production here.

The Importance of Being Earnest - LT - 1200

Musical and opera versions

With its wit, wordplay, and gaiety, it’s no surprise that there have been numerous attempts to turn The Importance of Being Earnest into a musical. However, nothing has stuck so far. The earliest attempt was Oh, Ernest!, which played for about six weeks on Broadway in 1927, and a version by Vivian Ellis titled Half in Earnest (it featured elements of other works by Wilde) was performed at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre in 1957. More recently, Gyles Brandreth starred as Lady Bracknell in Adam McGuinness and Zia Moranne’s version at Riverside Studios in 2011.

There have also been at least three operatic interpretations, most notably Gerald Barry’s offering, which was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Barbican Centre and premiered in Los Angeles in 2011. Lady Bracknell, naturally, is sung by a bass.

Film adaptations

In 1952, the play was faithfully adapted for the big screen by Anthony Asquith, who also directed. Edith Evans immortalised her Lady Bracknell and her incomparably indignant delivery of a “A handbag?” The film also featured Michael Redgrave as Jack, Dorothy Tutin as Cecily, and Margaret Rutherford as Miss Prism. The film is regarded as a classic of postwar British cinema.

Fifty years later, Judi Dench’s Lady Bracknell was filmed for posterity with Colin Firth as Jack, Rupert Everett as Algernon (Everett later played Wilde himself in 2018’s The Happy Prince), and Reese Witherspoon as Cecily. Director Oliver Parker took the liberty of adding some of his own dialogue and reinstating a scene cut by Wilde before the play premiered.

However, nothing can beat seeing the play on stage. According to LondonTheatre.co.uk's reviewer, Webster's production "isn’t just vibrant, joyous and triumphantly queer, it’s also a thoughtful reclamation of a play that has become far too cosy, matching Wilde’s subversive spirit in every bold creative choice."