Stephen Fry joins Olly Alexander in the West End transfer of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ transfers to London’s West End

UPDATE: Following the announcement back in June that the National Theatre’s production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest would transfer to London’s West End with Olly Alexander replacing original star Ncuti Gatwa, full casting has today been announced. The huge news is that massive Brit star Stephen Fry will make one of his rare stage appearances: his first since the Globe’s Twelfth Night back in 2012. He’ll play the play’s infamous old battle-axe Lady Bracknell: very different casting to Sharon D Clarke, who played the role at the NT, but having the role played by a man is not without precedent (David Suchet did it in the West End a while back). They’ll be joined by an excellent cast that includes Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as Jack Worthing, Hugh Dennis as Rev. Canon Chasuble, Shobna Gulati as Miss Prism, Kitty Hawthorne as Gwendolen Fairfax, Jessica Whitehurst as Cecily Cardew and Hayley Carmichael as Merriman/Lane.

Ncuti Gatwa’s time on Doctor Who proved to be pretty brief. But he didn’t put his feet up in the gap between his two seasons – theatre was his first love and he got straight back on that stage last Christmas to star in the National Theatre’s hallucinogenically camp take on Oscar Wilde’s classic The Importance of Being Earnest, the first the NT had staged since the ’80s.

The Max Webster-directed production was a roaring great hit and now it’s set to transfer to the West End, replacing Mischief Theatre’s The Comedy About Spies at the Noël Coward Theatre.

Gatwa’s not coming along though: whether he’d have been up for it is a moot point, as he’s already busy starring in the RSC’s new West End play Born with Teeth. 

However, a fine replacement has been found for the role of young ‘bachelor’ about town Algernon Montcrieff: it’s Olly Alexander, who hasn’t been in Doctor Who but did make his name as actor in It’s A Sin, another show by Russell T Davies.

Wilde’s play is very much an ensemble affair and there is no news on further casting at this stage, though we dare to dream that the mighty Sharon D Clarke will return as the formidable Lady Bracknell.

If you want to know a little more about what the production was like last time, then read our four-star review here.

The Importance of Being Earnest is at the Noël Coward Theatre, Sep 18-Jan 10 2026. Book tickets here.

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