‘Hay Fever’ with Christine Baranski and Richard E. Grant in the West End: critics divided over Noël Coward’s comedy

The first reviews for the West End premiere of ‘Hay Fever’ are out, and the verdict is not unanimous. Noël Coward’s classic 1924 comedy, with Christine Baranski making her London debut as Judith Bliss and Richard E. Grant as her husband David, opened at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre under the direction of Emily Burns — as BroadwayWorld summarises in its roundup of reviews published today.

Baranski, a two-time Tony Award winner known mainly for her screen roles, brings — according to BroadwayWorld reviewer Aliya Al-Hassan — a “commanding presence”, although “her accent, mixed between upper-class English and American, affects some moments of the performance”; when she finds her rhythm, she “embraces the comic melodrama with relish”. The Telegraph, through Dominic Cavendish, notes that things “fire up after the interval”, when Baranski finally expands her gesticulating histrionics and the storylines — which entangle the guests in absurd, aimless romantic engagements — “joyfully converge”.

Not everyone is convinced. Time Out, through Andrzej Lukowski, writes that the revival “looks as if almost every detail of it could have been copied from a production a century ago”, while the Financial Times, through Tim Bano, sees it as “pleasant and satisfying”, but not “a great revelatory production” that brings Coward into the 21st century. WhatsOnStage, through Sarah Crompton, notes that the Bliss family is required to be “simultaneously monstrous and adorable” — a difficult balance for the actors.

Praise gathers for the supporting cast: The Times, through Dominic Maxwell, singles out Nancy Carroll, Charles Edwards, Lucy Karczewski, Ophelia Lovibond and Will Close, while The Guardian, through Emma John, writes that it is Lovibond as Sorel who “emerges as the most vital character”. The average of the reviews, according to BroadwayWorld, is 65%. ‘Hay Fever’ will run at Wyndham’s Theatre until 12 December.