Christine Baranski is making her West End debut alongside Richard E Grant

an image of Christine Baranski attending "The Gilded Age" premiere in New York City. — (Image credit: Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images)

London’s West End gets pretty starry – from Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey set to team up, Hayley Atwell, Tom Hiddleston, Rachel Zegler and Catherine Tate all having treaded some of the most historic theatrical boards over the last year. Now, acting legend Christine Baranski is heading to Shaftesbury Avenue to make her West End debut – finally.

Starring alongside fellow acting titan Richard E Grant, the pair are taking on a revival of Noel Coward’s comedy, Hay Fever. The show is heading to London’s Wyndham’s Theatre for a strictly limited 12-week run, kicking off on 22nd September.

Hay Fever follows the lives of the self-centred Bliss family – Judith, a retired actress, David, her novelist husband, and their eccentric children Sorel and Simon. It takes place over a weekend when all four family members separately invite a guest to stay for the weekend without mentioning it to the others, setting the stage for a long weekend of utter chaos. The last West End revival was in 2015, with actress Felicity Kendall taking on the leading role.

Speaking to the BBC about the news which was announced on Friday, the star, best known for Mamma Mia! and drama The Good Wife said it felt “extraordinary” to b heading to the West End. She added that the opportunity “has been on [her] bucket list for years”, and that “it’s just going to be wonderful.”

an image of the poster for Hay Fever at Wydnham's Theatre

“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." she enthused

Baranski said she’d been pining to return to her theatre roots for some time, having started her career predominantly as a theatre actress, and had no desire to be a TV actor at first. She has been tied up in various filming contracts, which have prevented her from doing a theatrical run – until now.

In a statement, Grant said he was delighted to be returning to the West End after a two-decade gap, and (correctly) described his co-star Baranski as “sensational”

"Hay Fever premiered in the West End 101 years ago (but who's counting?)," he joked in a statement. "I love the theatre and am thrilled to return to it."

The further cast hasn’t yet been announced, but with those two names in the leading roles, you know it can only get better, and the whole play is being directed by Emily Burns. It looks as though tickets will start at £25, but there will be only a limited number of those available, so it may get expensive if you want to go more central. Tickets go on general sale at 2pm on Friday 17th April, and are available via Wyndham's Theatre website.

You can currently catch the last weeks of Rosamund Pike in the Olivier Award-winning Inter Alia at Wyndham's Theatre.

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Hermione Blandford is the Content Editor for Shortlist’s social media which means you can usually find her scrolling through Instagram and calling it work, or stopping random people in the street and accosting them with a mini mic. She has previously worked in food and drink PR for brands including Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray, Gordon's, The Singleton, Lagavulin and Don Julio which means she is a self confessed expert in spicy margaritas and pints, regularly popping into the pub in the name of research.

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