Stephen Fry on Stage
Catch Stephen Fry on stage as the National Treasure makes a triumphant return to the theatre this Autumn, tackling the iconic role of sharp-tongued matriarch Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde’s comedy The Importance of Being Earnest. This “glittering masterpiece” (Independent) of a production transfers to London’s West End from 18 September – 10 January for a strictly limited run following a sell-out 2024/25 season at the National Theatre.
Fry is no stranger to the world of Oscar Wilde, having portrayed the witty Irish playwright in the 1997 biopic Wilde, earning a Golden Globe nomination for his performance.
“I was delighted to be asked by Max Webster to join his jubilant National Theatre production and play the formidable Lady Bracknell in the West End. Oscar Wilde has been a hugely important figure in my life and career and The Importance of Being Earnest is a play that changed my life when I first saw it aged 10. It made me understand what language can do and absolutely transported me. Wilde is a beacon to people who still believe in open thinking and adventuring with the mind and spirit.”
Fry is perhaps best known as the host of trivia quiz show QI, which he presented for over thirteen years, earning six BAFTA nominations before handing the hosting baton over to Sandi Toksvig in 2016.
As well as his presenting work, Fry is also an acclaimed comedian, film, TV and stage actor, as well as a bestselling author. Fry first came to prominence as part of comic double act Fry and Laurie, with Hugh Laurie; working together on sketch show A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and PG Wodehouse adaptation Jeeves and Wooster, with Fry playing the dignified butler Jeeves opposite Laurie’s absent-minded Aristocrat Wooster. Fry’s other numerous TV and film credits include Blackadder, Gosford Park, The Hobbit and more recently roles in It’s A Sin, Heartstopper and The Sandman on Netflix, and as the King of England in queer Amazon rom-com Red, White and Royal Blue.
While he may be better known as a beloved TV personality and bestselling author, Fry is also an accomplished stage actor with a celebrated, and sometimes troubled, history of performing in theatre. Find out more about Stephen Fry on stage below.
1979-1981, Cambridge Uni: Fringe and the Footlights
Stephen Fry’s career began during his time at Cambridge University, where, while reading English, he joined the celebrated student sketch comedy group The Cambridge Footlights. The Footlights are one of the oldest student comedy groups in the UK, and have been the launching pad for many comedians’ careers, with other notable Footlights alumni including Monty Python’s Eric Idle, Sue Perkins, David Mitchell and Richard Ayoade.
As part of the Footlights, Fry met his comedy partner Hugh Laurie via mutual friend Emma Thompson (yes, the Emma Thompson). Edinburgh Festival Fringe goers would have caught Stephen Fry on stage in his early days, as whilst at university Fry wrote and performed in the play Latin! or Tobacco and Boys, first at Cambridge Uni, and then in a run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1980. As part of the Footlights, Fry also performed in many sketch shows, including the 1981 Footlights revue The Cellar Tapes, which won the prestigious Perrier Prize for Comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A recording of The Cellar Tapes, featuring Fry, Laurie and Thompson amongst others, was later broadcast on BBC in 1982.
1988, The Common Pursuit: Fry’s West End Debut
Following university and the BBC broadcast of The Cellar Tapes Fry and Laurie’s comedy career took off, as they launched their own sketch show and appeared in other comedy shows, including Rik Mayall’s The Young Ones, and Rowan Atkinson’s Blackadder. Fry also flexed his writing muscles again in 1984, penning the book for a musical adaptation of Me and My Girl, which ran on the West End for eight years, and later transferred to Broadway, winning two Laurence Olivier Awards and three Tonys, earning Fry his first Tony nom.
In 1988 Fry appeared in The Common Pursuit at the Phoenix Theatre, the West End transfer of a play by Simon Gray, about six Cambridge undergrads who set up a literary magazine – familiar territory for Fry! Fry starred alongside comedians Rik Mayall and John Sessions and later reprised his role for a BBC screen adaptation of the play.
1995, Cell Mates: The Controversial Walk Out
Fry didn’t take to the stage again until 1995, in a now infamous production of Cell Mates.
In the intermediate years, Fry continued to work in comedy, film, TV and writing, publishing novels The Liar and The Hippopotamus, which was later adapted for film. Fry then joined the cast of Cell Mates, another play by The Common Pursuit playwright Simon Gray, about two convicts who stage a prison break, opposite Rik Mayall.
Fry performed successfully in the show’s “warm-up” run in Guildford and at the Richmond Theatre, but when the show opened in the West End, disaster struck. Just three days into the West End run, Fry walked out on the production, leaving only an apology behind him. Despite efforts to recast, the show was forced to close early. Speculation ran rampant in the press, with guesses at Fry’s motive for quitting ranging from an acute fit of stage fright to a bad reaction to a negative review. Fry later disclosed his reasons for quitting were due to struggles with his mental health.
Fry has since been diagnosed with cyclothymia, a form of bipolar disorder, and has spoken openly about his struggles, becoming an advocate for mental health awareness. He has worked with charities Mind and Stand to Reason, and has created a documentary about his experience living with bipolar for the BBC, Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, which later won an International Emmy for best Documentary. In the 2025 New Year Honours, Fry was knighted for his services to mental health awareness and to charity.
2012, Twelfth Night: A Triumphant, Tony-nominated Return.
Following the incident with Cell Mates, while he penned a script for pantomime Cinderella at the Old Vic and appeared as a recorded voice in a production of Liberace, Live From Heaven Stephen Fry did not appear in person on stage again until 2012.
Fry continued his work writing, hosting QI and other projects, before returning to the stage at last when he was cast as Malvolio, the stuck-up, love-sick servant of the Lady Olivia, in a revival of Mark Rylance’s celebrated all-male production of Twelfth Night at Shakespeare’s Globe. The production was a smash-hit, with critics praising Fry’s performance as “intelligently pondered, generous” (Independent). Following an initial run at the Globe, Twelfth Night transferred into the West End, and then later to Broadway where Fry received a Tony nomination for his performance.
2018- 2023, Mythos: A Heroic Rise and Unfortunate Fall.
Fry continued to write novels, and perform in numerous shows, alongside hosting QI, before stepping down from the role in 2016. In 2018, Fry took to the stage once again, this time in a very different sort of performance, merging his worlds as author and performer. Fry appeared at the Shaw Festival Theatre in Ontario, Canada in three one-man adaptations of his novel Mythos, a retelling of classic Greek Myths. The productions, titled Gods, Heroes and Men, later premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival, before transferring to London to critical acclaim.
In 2020 Fry appeared in a charity variety performance A Marvelous Party, which was staged in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Sir Noël Coward’s West End debut, alongside Judy Dench, Cush Jumbo, and Hugh Bonneville, amongst others.
In 2023, there was another unfortunate incident for Stephen Fry on stage, when, after delivering a speech on AI as part of the CogX technology festival at the Greenwich O2 Arena, Fry fell when exiting the stage. Fry was hospitalised following the fall – a brutal six-foot drop onto concrete – and was confirmed to have broken his hip, pelvis, leg and ribs. Thankfully, Fry has since made a full recovery!
2025, The Importance of Being Earnest: Wilde West End!
Now, Stephen Fry steps into Lady Bracknell’s heels, joining a full-cast production for the first time in over a decade, to deliver a performance as one of Wilde’s wittiest creations. Fry joins the cast of Max Webber’s production as it transfers to London’s West End, following a sell-out run at the National Theatre in 2024. The 2024 production starred Ncuti Gatwa (who you can currently catch as Kit Marlowe in the sizzling, Shakespearean Born with Teeth until November) as Algernon Moncrieff, with Sharon D Clarke as Lady Bracknell.
Praised for “pointing up the classic Victorian comedy’s subversive queerness” (Guardian), the transfer stars openly gay actor and Years and Years singer Olly Alexander, his second time performing alongside Fry as they both previously appeared in ’80s set queer drama by Russell T Davies, It’s A Sin. Fry is also openly gay, and has been out since the 1980s. A trailblazer of the queer community, Fry is a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, making him the perfect fit for this “joyfully reclaimed, triumphantly queer” (London Theatre Review) celebration of Oscar Wilde’s work.
What’s your favourite Stephen Fry on stage role?
From Footlight beginnings, to a controversial walkout, to a Tony nomination, Stephen Fry’s stage career has been anything but boring, and now comes full circle as he tackles the iconic role of Lady Bracknell in the play that inspired the acclaimed writer and performer’s love of language.
“Wilde would be wild about this production” (Guardian) – so don’t miss this rare chance to see National Treasure Stephen Fry on stage! Stephen Fry is joined in The Importance of Being Earnest by a star-studded cast including Hugh Dennis, Olly Alexander and Shobna Gulati. Grab your hat, your cravat and your handbag, brush up on Lady Bracknell’s best quotes, and RSVP to the Wilde-est party in town this September with tickets to The Importance of Being Earnest at the Noel Coward Theatre.
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