London Theatre News & Reviews

The Reviews are in for An Ideal Husband

~ Buy Tickets for An Ideal Husband ~

Oscar Wilde’s classic play An Ideal Husband gets a rather timely bold new twist at the Lyric Hammersmith.

First staged at the Haymarket Theatre in 1895, the tale of blackmail and political corruption in Victorian London - perhaps best known for its 1999 film adptation, starring Cate Blanchett, Minnie Driver, Rupert Everett, Julianne Moore and Jeremy Northam - has been transposed into the modern day, with its themes of power, greed, and privilege sadly just as relevant today.

The reviews are in:

"This enjoyable new all-Black cast take on the Wilde classic is a little style over substance." ★★★ (Time Out).

"Nineties garage music and nods to Beyoncé put new flesh on the old bones of Oscar Wilde’s 1895 political comedy. Directed by Nicholai La Barrie with an all-Black cast and some wonderfully lavish costumes — frills, fans, headdresses — the production sometimes comes thrillingly alive, and sometimes suffocates under the weight of its wild excess." ★★★ (Financial Times).

"Still, this remains an intelligent and highly entertaining revival, and one clearly embraced by its audience. La Barrie’s production is simultaneously reverential and daring, elegant and gutsy, demonstrating just how easily Wilde’s themes continue to flourish in such a fresh context." ★★★★ (Everything Theatre).

"The dissolute aristocrats from 1895 remain sharply funny, and bitingly relevant, in this flamboyant new spin." ★★★★ (The Guardian).

"'Life imitates art,' Oscar Wilde famously declared, and in this vivid production contemporary echoes abound as a politician is compromised by an unscrupulous deed from his past. It’s no coincidence that, in one of several mischievous script updates, Mrs Cheveley — who threatens to end Sir Robert Chiltern’s career with her revelations — comes not from Vienna but Washington.." ★★★ (The Times).

"Provocatively entertaining." ★★★★ (The Stage).

Overall: ★★★½

~ o ~