The Importance of Being Earnest with Olly Alexander and Stephen Fry | West End trailer

Watch the new trailer for the National Theatre’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Oscar Wilde's treasured comedy about hidden identities, cucumber sandwiches and unexpected romances will open at the Noël Coward Theatre this autumn, in a co-production with Sonia Friedman Productions. Following a sold-out run at the National Theatre and a cinema broadcast through National Theatre Live (where it starred Ncuti Gatwa and Sharon D Clarke), the show will begin performances on 18 September 2025 and continue until 10 January 2026. Over 20,000 tickets are available for under £30 across the run. Directed by Max Webster, the production stars Olly Alexander in the role of Algernon Moncrieff, with 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, Hayley Carmichael as Merriman/Lane, and Stephen Fry as Lady Bracknell, with ensemble and understudy members Jasmine Kerr, Sam Liu, Gillian McCafferty, Elliot Pritchard and Liv Spencer.