Hay Fever Tickets at Wyndham's Theatre
Noël Coward's Hay Fever, billed as a comedy of appalling manners, plays Wyndham's Theatre from 22 September to 12 December 2026. Twelve weeks only. Christine Baranski makes her West End debut as Judith Bliss, opposite Richard E. Grant in his first West End role in over twenty years.
From £24
At Wyndham's Theatre, 2 minutes' walk from Leicester SquareBooking to 12 December 2026
Next available
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020 7193 9050 · Monday to Saturday 8am to 8pm, Sunday 10am to 8pm
Help choosing your seat
Who Is Hay Fever Best For?
- Anyone who books for the acting. Two household names doing a hard comic play properly.
- Anyone after a fun night out rather than a heavy one. It is a comedy, it is over before ten,.
- A twelve-week window. It closes on 12 December and it will not extend, so the good seats go early.
- Less good for: anyone wanting spectacle or a musical. This is four walls, a country house and a lot of talking.
About Hay Fever at Wyndham's Theatre
Hay Fever is a hundred and one years old and it has never really been off the stage. Coward wrote it in 1925, aged 25, in three days. Some early critics complained it had "no plot and very little action", and audiences have ignored them ever since.
The part of Judith Bliss is one of the great comic roles for an actress, and the list of people who have played it here runs through Edith Evans, Judi Dench, Felicity Kendal and Lindsay Duncan. This time it goes to Christine Baranski, winner of two Tony Awards, in her first West End appearance.
Coward built Judith out of an American actress he met in 1921, Laurette Taylor, whose household gave him the play. An American in the role is therefore closer to his original than most of what has come since.
Opposite her, Richard E. Grant plays her novelist husband David, back on a West End stage after more than twenty years away.
What's Hay Fever About?
A weekend in the country, at the home of the Bliss family, who are all impossible.
Judith is a retired actress who has not stopped acting, she has simply moved the performance into her own house. David writes novels. Their grown-up children, Simon and Sorel, are as bad as their parents. All four of them separately invite a guest down for the same weekend, and none of them mentions it to the others.
Judith has asked a young boxer who admires her. David has asked a flapper. Simon has asked a sophisticated woman who turns out to be more than a match for all of them, and Sorel has asked a diplomat she met at a dance.
Four visitors arrive expecting a quiet couple of days in the country. What they get is a family who treat every conversation as a scene to be played, every meal as an entrance, and every guest as an audience. The guests are charmed, then confused, then driven mad.
Nothing much happens. The comedy is in the manners.
What Hay Fever Tickets Cost
From around £40 up to around £250 midweek, and from around £55 up to around £300 at the weekend.
Those are all-in figures. Face value on the best weekend seat is £225, and a booking fee of the sort most sellers add takes it close to £300. With us that is already in the number you see, so nothing gets added at checkout.
There is no cheapest-band seat at all on a Friday or Saturday. If your dates are flexible, midweek saves you at the bottom of the house and a good deal more at the top, which is the biggest single saving available on this show.
Full band detail is in the Tickets and Best Seats tab.
Book Hay Fever tickets • Call us on 020 7193 9050
Performance Schedule
Hay Fever plays Monday to Saturday, with Wednesday and Saturday matinees.
| Day | Matinee | Evening |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | - | 7:30pm |
| Tuesday | - | 7:30pm |
| Wednesday | 2:30pm | 7:30pm |
| Thursday | - | 7:30pm |
| Friday | - | 7:30pm |
| Saturday | 2:30pm | 7:30pm |
| Sunday | - | - |
Running time is about 2 hours 20 minutes including one interval.
The first performance was Tuesday 22 September 2026, and press night was Thursday 1 October. Booking runs to Saturday 12 December 2026.
Under-3s are not admitted, and under-16s must be accompanied by an adult. The production contains flashing lights and cigarette smoking.
Best Seats for Hay Fever
Wyndham's is small, so there is no bad part of it, but there are two things worth knowing before you pick.
The Royal Circle overhangs the Stalls from around Row K. You will not notice it for a few rows, but past Row N you start losing the top of the stage. For a play like this, where everything happens at eye level in a drawing room, that matters less than it would for a musical with something going on above head height. It is still worth paying attention to.
The front and centre of the Royal Circle is the best seat in the building and it is not the most expensive one in it. The central Stalls put you closest to two actors you have probably booked to see up close, though Stalls rows A to D are flat, with no rake, so at the very front the person ahead of you matters. The front of the Grand Circle is where the value is. If you are tall, be careful up there: legroom is tight and gets tighter from Row E back.
Why those are the answers for this particular play is in the Tickets and Best Seats tab.
Full seat-by-seat detail, the Boxes and the step counts are in our Wyndham's Theatre guide. Or call 020 7193 9050 and we will match a seat to your budget.
Cast and Creative Team
Christine Baranski plays Judith Bliss, and she is one of the most decorated performers to appear in the West End this year. Two Tony Awards, a Primetime Emmy and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, with fifteen Emmy nominations across Cybill, Frasier, The Big Bang Theory, The Good Wife and The Gilded Age. On film she is in Mamma Mia!, Chicago and The Birdcage.
And in all that, she has never appeared in the West End. This is her debut.
Richard E. Grant plays David Bliss, and he is the other reason this cast is worth the ticket. Withnail & I made him permanently; Can You Ever Forgive Me? brought an Oscar nomination, plus BAFTA, Golden Globe and SAG nominations, and a win at the Independent Spirit Awards; Saltburn introduced him to everyone who had missed the first two. This is his first West End appearance in over twenty years.
Emily Burns directs. Her last production was Dear Octopus at the National in 2024, Dodie Smith's 1938 comedy about a family gathering at a country house for a weekend, which is close to the same territory as this one. Before that, Jack Absolute Flies Again at the National and The Comeback in the West End.
Will Close and Ophelia Lovibond play the Bliss children, Simon and Sorel. Nancy Carroll, Charles Edwards, Ash Hunter and Lucy Karczewski are the four weekend guests, and Jo McInnes is Clara.
Book Your Hay Fever Tickets
Hay Fever is at Wyndham's Theatre from 22 September to 12 December 2026. Twelve weeks only, with two names of this size, so the better seats will not sit around.
All-in pricing, so the price you see is what you pay.
Book Hay Fever tickets • Call us on 020 7193 9050
Dates & tickets
FAQs
Private Lives, Blithe Spirit, Present Laughter and Design for Living are the ones you are most likely to have heard of, out of more than fifty plays, plus hundreds of songs. Hay Fever is one of the earliest, written when he was 25, and one of the most revived.
About 2 hours 20 minutes including one interval. A 7:30pm performance finishes at around 9:50pm; a 2:30pm matinee at around 4:50pm.
Wyndham's Theatre, 32-36 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0DA, on the corner by Leicester Square. Leicester Square station is about two minutes away, which is one of the shortest walks from tube to seat in the West End.
Under-3s are not admitted and under-16s need an adult with them. Beyond that it is a wordy period comedy rather than anything unsuitable, so the real question is whether a child would sit happily through a long evening of very fast dialogue. For most under-12s the answer is no.
Not at all. If it helps, all you need is this: one family, four guests, one weekend, nobody behaves.
It closes on Saturday 12 December 2026 and there is no open-ended run here. If you want a particular date or a good seat, book rather than wait.
The back of the Stalls from Row N, where the circle above starts taking the top of the stage. The eight side Boxes lose you about a third of the stage. Anything with a restricted view is marked before you buy. More in our Wyndham's Theatre guide.
There is a captioned performance on Saturday 31 October and an audio described performance on Tuesday 3 November 2026. The theatre has a lift to two wheelchair spaces, an induction loop and an infrared system. Access bookings are arranged by the venue's own access team rather than by us.
Yes, in plastic rather than glass. There are three bars at Wyndham's, and the interval queue is worse than the size of the theatre suggests, so buying beforehand is the better plan.
Theatre tickets are generally sold as non-refundable, and what you can change depends on who you booked with. If you booked with us, call 020 7193 9050 and we will tell you what your booking allows rather than sending you to read terms.
Yes. Call 020 7193 9050 and a real person will help you pick seats and book them.
Tickets and Best Seats for Hay Fever
What this particular show does to the seat question. Hay Fever is a drawing-room comedy, which means it plays out on a single set at eye level, with several people on stage reacting to each other at once. That has two consequences for choosing a seat.
The overhang matters less here than it would for a musical. Nothing important happens above head height, so losing the top of the stage in the rear Stalls costs you less than it would at a show with flying scenery.
Being able to see the whole room matters more. Coward's comedy is frequently about the person who is not speaking. A wide, clean view of the full stage picture is worth more than proximity, which is an argument for the Royal Circle over the front Stalls if you are choosing between them.
On price. The bands and the midweek saving are in the Overview tab. Two things to add here: all-in pricing, so the price you see is what you pay, and any restricted-view seat is marked as such before you buy, so you will never be sold one without knowing.
Call us on 020 7193 9050 if you want the honest answer on whether trading up a band is worth it for your date.
Seating plan
Dates & tickets
Booking now
Getting to Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre, 32-36 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0DA.
By tube. Leicester Square, on the Northern and Piccadilly lines, is about two minutes away and practically at the door. Covent Garden is about 5 minutes, Piccadilly Circus about 7, and Charing Cross under 10.
By rail. Charing Cross is the nearest mainline station, under 10 minutes on foot.
By bus. Stopping closest, by Leicester Square station: 24, 29, 176. A few minutes further, at Cambridge Circus and Shaftesbury Avenue: 9, 14, 19, 22, 38. Night buses N5, N20 and N29 run the same road.
Driving. There is no theatre car park, the nearest is Q-Park Chinatown, and you are inside both the Congestion Charge zone and the ULEZ.
Arrive 15 to 20 minutes before the start, no later. There is a bag check on the way in, and for a play like this latecomers can be held until the interval rather than slipped in at the back.
There is one step up from the street into the foyer, then 18 steps down to the Stalls, 18 up to the Royal Circle and 41 up to the Grand Circle. Full detail, including the step-free route and the side entrance that reaches the Stalls in 8 steps, is in our Wyndham's Theatre guide.
Address
32-36 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0DA
Nearest Tube
Leicester Square (2 min walk)
Hay Fever Cast and Creative Team
Christine Baranski, Judith Bliss
Twelve major awards from fifty nominations, and she has won in all three mediums. Two Tony Awards on Broadway, including one for Neil Simon's Rumors, plus two Drama Desk Awards. A Primetime Emmy for Cybill, from fifteen Emmy nominations spread across Cybill, Frasier, The Big Bang Theory, The Good Wife and The Gilded Age. And three Screen Actors Guild Awards, for Cybill, The Birdcage and Chicago.
Whichever way you know her, you know her. Mamma Mia! for some, Leonard's mother in The Big Bang Theory for others, Diane Lockhart in The Good Wife and The Good Fight for a great many more.
What she has never done is a West End show. She first saw one as a Juilliard student in 1971 and has called appearing here a lifelong ambition, so the debut is fifty-five years in the making.
She is not new to the writer either. She has played Coward twice in the United States, in Private Lives and Blithe Spirit, and calls the writing something that "requires quicksilver delivery and suave flamboyance".
Richard E. Grant, David Bliss
Withnail & I in 1987 made him, and it has never really let him go: forty years on it is still the film people quote at him in the street.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? in 2018 did something different. As Jack Hock, opposite Melissa McCarthy, he earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, along with BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations, and he won the Independent Spirit Award. It was his first Oscar nomination, at 61, and he spent that awards season visibly enjoying every minute of it.
Since then Saltburn has introduced him to an audience who were not born when Withnail came out.
He has kept working on stage throughout, playing Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady for Opera Australia and for Lyric Opera of Chicago, and touring a solo show of his own. It is a London theatre audience he has not stood in front of for over twenty years, which is what makes this a return rather than a debut.
Emily Burns, director
The credit that matters is her most recent one. Dear Octopus, at the National in 2024: Dodie Smith's 1938 comedy in which an English family gathers at a country house for a weekend. Swap the family and you have described this play.
She has also worked at the Bridge and was resident director at the National, and her West End credit is at the Noël Coward Theatre, the building directly behind this one.
Frankie Bradshaw designs the set and costumes, with lighting by Oliver Fenwick and sound by Tingying Dong.
The rest of the company
Will Close is Simon Bliss, the son, a painter, and Ophelia Lovibond is Sorel Bliss, the daughter, who has ideas about becoming respectable and no ability to sustain them. Between them they are half the noise in the house.
Then the four guests, and the joke of the play is in who asked whom:
| Guest | Played by | Invited by | Who they are |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sandy Tyrell | Ash Hunter | Judith | A young boxer, and an admirer |
| Myra Arundel | Nancy Carroll | Simon | A sophisticate, and more than a match for the family |
| Richard Greatham | Charles Edwards | Sorel | A diplomat she met at a dance |
| Jackie Coryton | Lucy Karczewski | David | A flapper, entirely out of her depth |
And Clara, the maid, played by Jo McInnes, who used to be Judith's dresser and is the only person in the house not performing.
Hay Fever Reviews and Reception
Hay Fever opened to the critics on 1 October 2026, and most of the national papers gave it three stars, with four from WhatsOnStage. The Stage summed it up as "Glossily amusing", and WhatsOnStage's Sarah Crompton called the play "a meringue of nothingness", adding "Meringues aren't exactly filling, but they are fun to eat" (4/5). The supporting cast got the best notices, especially Lucy Karczewski and Charles Edwards, and the reviews split over Christine Baranski: the FT said "it's Baranski's show", while the Telegraph found her "serviceable rather than sensational" (3/5). The full round-up is in What the Critics Say.
The play itself has a long record. Hay Fever has been revived more or less continuously for a hundred years, on the strength of one thing: it is reliably funny in performance, whatever the critics thought of it on paper in 1925. The role of Judith Bliss has drawn Edith Evans, Judi Dench, Felicity Kendal and Lindsay Duncan, and each revival has tended to stand or fall on that casting.
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Hay Fever
Wyndham's Theatre