US actress Christine Baranski has said it will be a “dream come true” to make her West End debut later this year in a new staging of Noël Coward’s comedy Hay Fever.
The 73-year-old, known for roles in Mamma Mia! and The Good Wife, will appear alongside Richard E. Grant in the production, which opens at Wyndham’s Theatre in London for a limited 12-week run from 22 September.
Speaking to the BBC, Baranski said the opportunity felt long overdue.
“It's been on my bucket list for years,” she said. “It's going to be just wonderful, I can't tell you how excited I am. Believe me, I'm already studying the role, learning my lines, and working to polish an English accent.”
The actress added that returning to the stage had been a long-standing ambition, but her filming commitments had often made it difficult to commit to theatre work.
“The problem has always been my filming schedule,” she explained, “which has not allowed me to carve out enough time to do a play, but if ever there was a play for me to do, it would be this one.”
Grant, who is also returning to the West End after more than 20 years, said he was “delighted” to be involved and described Baranski as “sensational”.
“Hay Fever premiered in the West End 101 years ago (but who's counting?),” he said. “I love the theatre and am thrilled to return to it.”
Although widely recognised for her screen work, Baranski began her career on stage.
She said she had initially had “no desire to be a television actor” before her role in the 1990s sitcom Cybill altered her trajectory.
“That really transformed my career, and suddenly I was offered wonderful movie roles,” she said. “So to my astonishment, the latter part of my career has been film and mostly television.”
Baranski later earned multiple Emmy nominations for her portrayal of Diane Lockhart in The Good Wife and its spin-off The Good Fight, and has appeared in a range of film and television projects including Chicago, Frasier and HBO’s The Gilded Age.
Hay Fever, first staged in 1925, centres on the eccentric Bliss family, whose members each invite a guest to their home without informing the others, resulting in a chaotic weekend of clashing personalities.
The lead role has traditionally been played by British actresses, most recently Felicity Kendal in the West End revival in 2015.
However, Coward is said to have based the character on American Broadway star Laurette Taylor, whom he encountered at a dinner party in the early 1920s.
Hay Fever will run at the Wyndham’s Theatre from September 22 to December 12 2026, with a press night on October 1
