Richard E. Grant and Christine Baranski's Hay Fever Will Be Broadcast in Theaters Next Year

National Theatre Live has announced that Noël Coward’s comedy Hay Fever, currently in the West End starring two-time Tony Award winner Christine Baranski and Academy Award nominee Richard E. Grant, will be filmed from the Wyndham’s Theatre and released in movie theaters on January 14, 2027.

In addition, Jack Thorne’s The Motive and the Cue, starring Mark Gatiss, Johnny Flynn, and Tuppence Middleton, captured from the Lyttelton stage on London’s South Bank in 2023, will return to cinemas on February 18.

This new production of Hay Fever is directed by Emily Burns. In it, Judith Bliss (Baranski) has retired from her life-on-stage and she misses the applause. Idling away at their country home, the rest of the family are too self-involved to be a good audience, so Judith invites a young fan as her guest for the weekend.

The cast also includes Nancy Carroll as Myra Arundel, Will Close as Simon Bliss, Charles Edwards as Richard Greatham, Ophelia Lovibond as Sorel Bliss, Ash Hunter as Sandy Tyrell, Lucy Karczewski as Jackie Coryton, and Jo McInnes as Clara. Helena Antoniou, Charlotte Avery, Alan Drake, and Shaun Mendum complete the cast.

The creative team also includes Frankie Bradshaw (set and costume design), Oliver Fenwick (lighting design), Tingying Dong (sound design), Bethan Clark (fight and intimacy director), and Danièle Lydon (dialect coach).

The Motive and the Cue, directed by Olivier, Tony and Academy Award winner Sam Mendes, is a backstage drama inspired by the making of Richard Burton and John Gielgud’s Broadway production of Hamlet in 1964.

Gatiss plays John Gielgud, alongside Flynn as Richard Burton and Middleton as Elizabeth Taylor. The cast also includes Allan Corduner, Ryan Ellsworth, Aysha Kala, Luke Norris, Michael Walters, and Laurence Ubong Williams.

The creative team includes Es Devlin (set design), Katrina Lindsay (costume design), Jon Clark (lighting design), Benjamin Kwasi Burrell (composer), Paul Arditti (sound design), and Luke Halls (video design).