The Importance of Being Earnest reviews round-up starring Stephen Fry & Olly Alexander, Noel Coward Theatre London

"Stephen Fry’s The Importance of Being Earnest is a gender-bending delight"

"With a starry cast and zesty acting, this Oscar Wilde staging is the thinking person’s panto"

"... Stephen Fry is a gender-bending delight as Lady Bracknell in Max Webster’s flamboyant staging of Oscar Wilde’s theatrical masterpiece. This recast transfer from the National – which also now boasts pop star and actor Olly Alexander, as well as Outnumbered’s Hugh Dennis – fits like a glove into the Noël Coward Theatre."

"Clad in garish bustle-dresses, Fry, 68, lends his intellectual fluency and towering presence to Wilde’s verbally pyrotechnic and subtly anarchic script. He doesn’t attempt much female impersonation, and instead gives us the crisp, snooty essence of Lady B: demanding, commanding, formidable."

"[Olly Alexander] endears himself as a camply impish Algernon... Alexander handles the witty aphorisms such that they seem calculatedly dropped into conversation, a perfect kind of faux-spontaneity, and he’s more nuanced than Ncuti Gatwa was in the role at the NT."

"... in this more intimate venue, it all feels less effortfully declamatory; the evening sits in a curious liberated space where the repression of the Victorian age is implied and subverted."

"... Hayley Carmichael scene-stealing outrageously in her butler roles, and Hawthorne’s forthright Gwendolin memorably sparring with Jessica Whitehurst’s politely forceful Cecily"

"Stephen Fry was born to play Lady Bracknell"

"Was ever an actor more obviously born to play a role? It was surely only a matter of time before Stephen Fry... should take to the stage as one of Wilde’s most colourful characters – Lady Bracknell"

"It’s a joyfully exuberant production, now recast and transferred from the National Theatre to the West End."

"... Fry is more conservative. Yet he keeps his character grounded in Wilde’s unimprovable wit and is careful not to cheapen her as a panto dame."

"Popstar Olly Alexander, from Years & Years, now plays Algie with boyish zip, but some of his gags fail to land and he misses Gatwa’s megawatt charisma."

"Max Webster’s joyous production remains book-ended with an LGBTQ+ pageant which adds needless flummery to an immaculately constructed plot."

"... the clashing colours of Rae Smith’s design... make the 130-year-old play feel like it was written yesterday."

"Olly Alexander is on fine form leading a Stephen Fry augmented cast through the transfer of the NT’s dazzlingly queer Wilde revival"

"[Olly Alexander] plays Algie with a waspish dandyishness that feels childish, not adult, a little boy roleplaying his whirlwind romance with Jessica Whitehurst’s bolshy Cicily."

"Webster’s interpretation amps up Wilde’s wit by unburdening it of any need for us to believe in the romance."

"Rae Smith’s sets remain things of vivid wonder, a series of hallucinogenic, lysergically bright wonderlands that look hyperreal, not actually real."

"[Stephen] Fry’s performance is rather gentle, all things told, but there’s something about the mere fact of his being there – probably the most famous gay actor in the country – that adds to the general sense that we’ve fallen into some bizarre, Narnia-like closet."

"The whole ensemble is allowed to breathe a bit more than when Gatwa was the focal point. Alexander is more of a team player, with a genuinely enjoyable double act between his bitchy Algenon and Stewart-Jarrett’s terminally straightforward Jack"

"... whether you want to look for deeper meaning in the production’s every quirk or simply treat it as a funny, fresh, irreverent way of tackling a comedy that has become mired in sexually repressed cliche, well, that’s entirely up to you."

"Stephen Fry’s Lady Bracknell is irresistible in The Importance of Being Earnest"

"Transferring to London’s Noël Coward Theatre, this exuberant production of Wilde’s comedy favours style over substance"

"... 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."

"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"

"... the new cast bring different energies within that framework. Alexander is wonderfully mischievous and sharp as Algie... 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"

"And then there is Fry, whose Lady Bracknell, upholstered like a Victorian furniture shop on the move, puts the imp into imperious... 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 overall, the staging brings masses of style but a little less in the way of substance... Even so, this is an exuberant, joyous, celebratory evening"

"Three scene-stealers make this a comedy cracker"

"Now blithely skipping across the Thames to the Noël Coward Theatre, the take on Wilde’s play...feels tighter, slicker and funnier."

"Part of the success has to come down to Webster’s direction – deftly mining Wilde’s text for the comic opportunities and rattling along at a necessarily chipper pace"

"[Olly] Alexander returning to the stage with a blasé pomp that fits Wilde’s text like a glove, and where Stewart-Jarrett may not have had the same haphazard foppishness that worked well for Hugh Skinner at the National, he keeps the show’s tempo at a blazing speed"

"... there are three performers that steal the show. The first two of these are Kitty Hawthorne as Gwendolen and Jessica Whitehurst as Cecily... The third of these is truly Webster’s secret weapon in this production: Told by an Idiot co-founder and stage legend Hayley Carmichael"

"... Stephen Fry, is an understated yet poised Lady Bracknell, in some ways reminiscent of the award-winning work done by Jak Malone as Hester in Operation Mincemeat."

"... this autumn it’s a sure-fire comedy cracker for all seasons."

"Stephen Fry's Lady Bracknell is the trump card"

"An all-star cast takes on Oscar Wilde’s classic in hyper-camp style"

"Fluting, acerbic, but also surprisingly warm, Stephen Fry’s Lady Bracknell is the trump card of Max Webster’s hyper-camp reading of Oscar Wilde’s peerless comedy. Handsomely remounted in the West End with a new cast, the show feels more effortful, more try-hard, than it did at the National last November. Until Fry’s two appearances, that is."

"... Fry is a Wilde expert, possessed of exquisite comic timing and modulation. His precision shows up the tendency of some other cast members to gabble."

"Webster outs and exaggerates the shallowly hidden gay subtext of Wilde’s play, making it a hectic place of sexual and gender fluidity."

"The knowingness of Webster’s production, including pop-culture references, queer in-jokes and regular breaking of the fourth wall, feels closer to panto now than it did at the National."

"Relative newcomer Hawthorne brings hilarity to this Gwendolen’s blend of raunch and decorous snobbery."

"Everyone bar Fry is upstaged by veteran clown Hayley Carmichael as Algy’s butler Lane and Jack’s servant Merriman"

"The whole thing looks gorgeous, unfolding with advancing degrees of opulence."

"Stephen Fry’s Lady Bracknell presides over merrily queered comedy"

"Max Webster’s frisky Oscar Wilde revival, first seen at the National Theatre, arrives in the West End with a new cast"

"... Max Webster’s shameless production merrily queers the comedy, shoving subtext from the shadows."

"It can be galling when male actors take prime female roles, but the casting suits this super-gay reading."

"The dizzy chaps are cute – Nathan Stewart-Jarrett’s Jack in fine fluster, Olly Alexander’s Algy giving good smirk – but it’s their sweethearts who gleam. Kitty Hawthorne’s fanny-fanning Gwendolen and Jessica Whitehurst’s scowling Cecily both tap the production’s libidinous undertow."

"Wilde believed the play “must go like a pistol shot” but here, lines arrive with a leisurely, even laborious, flourish. Even so, the show lives for pleasure, especially in Rae Smith’s designs"

"Stephen Fry is a fabulous Lady Bracknell"

"Stephen Fry's a glorious Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest but, if I'm totally 'earnest', this production's a mixed (hand)bag."

"The casting coup this time is that great dame, Stephen Fry, and he channels Dame Edith Evans with a ripely bellowed "A handbag?""

"... he steams into scenes like a galleon in full sail. It's a supremely confident, classy, comfortable performance that utterly delights and meets all our expectations. But I can't help wishing he had challenged them a little more, too."

"It certainly all looks wonderful, a fancy fondant of technicoloured froth with eye-popping visuals by set and costume designer Rae Smith. A dazzling surface, but, frequently, not much beneath it."

"Hawthorne and Whitehurst's feisty lasses are a constant hoot. Both actresses juggle broad physical comedy with mastery of the material, bringing a refreshing modern energy and attitude to their theatrical posh accents and roles."

"It doesn't help that everyone is utterly upstaged by theatre legend Hayley Carmichael, using every ounce of her comedic genius"

"There's no denying it's often fun with some fine performances but it really needs some finessing and a little of Wilde's dreaded sincerity."

"Stephen Fry drowns in camp"

"The actor is perfectly fine as Lady Bracknell but this relentlessly slapstick take on Oscar Wilde pushes a classic comedy to breaking point"

"Max Webster’s ultra-camp take on Oscar Wilde’s witticisms is so loud, he might as well have given the actors megaphones: almost every line is delivered with a shriek, a shout or an elbow dug into the audience’s ribs. It’s fun at first, but by the end you begin to feel bruised."

"... Stephen Fry as Lady Bracknell, isn’t so easy to warm to. Fry is perfectly fine as the grand old lady... but he hasn’t yet acquired the hauteur of the Caribbean matron that Sharon D Clarke brought to the South Bank."

"More importantly, you really do miss the subtle comic timing of Hugh Skinner’s incarnation of Jack Worthing. His replacement, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, is a much broader presence."

"Rae Smith’s outfits are luscious, and her set designs dazzle too. But you do long for a little more Victorian reticence"

"For the most part, though, the mood comes perilously close to slapstick."

"... Webster is pushing a classic comedy of manners to breaking point. A delicate puff pastry of a play is smothered in dollops of pink icing."

"Shallow laughs firmly over substance"

"Olly Alexander and Stephen Fry star in this unsubtle and inelegant version of Oscar Wilde’s greatest comedy"

"Brash, silly and subtlety-free, Max Webster’s boisterous new production approaches Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy of manners and mistaken identity with a thoroughly modern sensibility."

"... from honouring the writing, Webster’s take on the piece is unashamedly irreverent, adopting an arch, heightened tone that often crosses the line into pantomime."

"There is a certain cheeky charm to all the clumsy cavorting, but it’s too tame and obvious to feel properly subversive"

"The lavish sets, designed by Rae Smith, look gorgeous"

"The strong cast throws itself gamely into the wildly exaggerated roles. Olly Alexander is a puckish presence as hedonistic Algernon... Nathan Stewart-Jarrett’s Jack is a more blustery, prickly figure"

"Stephen Fry gives a scene-stealing turn as a cross-cast Lady Bracknell. Here, the character feels markedly warmer and less severe than in most interpretations"

"Elsewhere, comedian Hugh Dennis is strong as Reverend Chasuble"

"Stephen Fry is a hologram on a mission to have fun"

"The actor makes a surprise theatrical return in this star-studded West End revival of The Importance of Being Earnest"

"How do you top a sold-out run at the National Theatre? In the case of this flamboyant Oscar Wilde West End revival, you up the star value."

"What is this, a panto? It’s not far off, right down to the lavishly costumed, groovily soundtracked “walkdown” the cast do leading up to the curtain call."

"It’s so rare and so welcome for someone to stage a flat-out comedy in the West End that I turned up with high hopes — despite not loving the show when it was on at the National last Christmas"

"Stars or not, some of the funniest lines in theatrical history or not, I barely cracked a smile. Never have I seen a show that so conspicuously and so repeatedly busts a gut trying to amuse. And forcible fun is quite my least favourite kind."

"Alexander (It’s a Sin) has a fine line in cheeky-boy face-pulling. But the campery comes as if by the yard: he’s both lively and on autopilot."

"So it’s slow too. Take Fry: his line readings are exemplary... but he has so little sense of physical presence that he might be a hologram."

"Can’t fault the energy. Can fault the sense of being bludgeoned into submission."