The Ahmanson Theatre will not host a pre-Broadway revival of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest as announced. The California venue will instead presented its own staging, directed by Peter Hall, with Lynn Redgrave as Lady Bracknell.
Set in the 1890s in England, The Importance of Being Earnest centers on two men who have taken to bending the truth in order to generate excitement in their lives. John Worthing invents a brother, Earnest, whom he uses as an excuse to leave his dull, country life behind to visit Gwendolyn daughter of Lady Bracknell in the city. The second man, Algernon Montcrieff, coincidently decides to take on the name Earnest when visiting Worthing's young ward in the country. Things start to go awry when they all end up in the country together.
Diana Rigg was recently reported as portraying Lady Bracknell in a spring 2006 Broadway revival of The Importance of Being Earnest. When Ahmanson announced its 2005-2006 season, it did not confirm Rigg but listed its production as being pre-Broadway, leading to speculation that Rigg would appear in the West Coast mounting. The Ahmanson mounting with Redgrave is no longer being considered to be on its way to the Great White Way. It remains to be seen whether a separate revival of The Importance of Being Earnest will come to Broadway in the spring.
Redgrave is currently starring on Broadway in The Constant Wife.
