Hay Fever

Hay Fever at Wyndham's Theatre

Two-time Tony and Emmy winner Christine Baranski makes her long-awaited West End debut in Noel Coward's sparkling comedy Hay Fever, playing a strictly limited season at Wyndham's Theatre from 22 September to 12 December 2026. The star of The Good Wife, The Good Fight and The Gilded Age leads as the gloriously self-dramatising actress Judith Bliss, opposite Academy Award nominee Richard E. Grant, of Withnail and I, Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Saltburn, who returns to the West End stage after some twenty years as her novelist husband David. The production is directed by Emily Burns for producers Wessex Grove and Gavin Kalin Productions.

"I attended my first West End play as a student at Juilliard in 1971," Baranski has said, "so it's rather a dream come true to perform at Wyndham's." With opening night set for 1 October 2026 and a run of just twelve weeks, it is one of the most anticipated star castings of the West End season.

The Story

First staged in 1925 and, by Coward's own famous boast, written in just three days, Hay Fever unfolds over a single catastrophic summer weekend at the country home of the bohemian Bliss family at Cookham, beside the Thames. Retired actress Judith, her novelist husband David and their grown-up children Simon and Sorel each invite a guest for the weekend without telling the others, and without the slightest intention of actually looking after them.

What follows is a masterclass in appalling behaviour, as four mismatched visitors are subjected to parlour games, romantic ambushes and the family's relentless theatrics, until they finally creep down the stairs and flee while their hosts, lost in a private row, fail to notice they have gone. Billed by this production as "a comedy of appalling manners", it remains one of Coward's wittiest and best-loved plays.

Why See Hay Fever

Judith Bliss is one of the great comic roles for a leading lady, most recently played in the West End by Judi Dench, whose celebrated 2006 revival is still fondly remembered. Christine Baranski, a peerless deliverer of the arched eyebrow and the perfectly timed put-down, is inspired casting, and her pairing with the equally droll Richard E. Grant promises a vintage Coward double act. With a strictly limited twelve-week run, this is a rare chance to see two screen favourites share a London stage.

Booking Hay Fever Tickets

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