Christine Baranski has said Noel Coward’s Hay Fever would be the “perfect play” to end her theatrical career with.
The Mamma Mia actress, 74, will make her West End debut in a revival of the comedy opposite Celebrity Traitors star Richard E Grant.
Baranski will play retired actress Judith Bliss in the play, about four members of the same family and their outlandish behaviour when they invite four guests to their home for the weekend.
Speaking on the Table Manners podcast, Baranski said: “My desire to do this is somehow like a wanting to just enter that terrain of being on the West End with English actors doing a Noel Coward play as an American actress, but just sort of upping my game.
“So it’s wonderfully challenging.
“This is a real showpiece for an actress, perfect for at my time of life because she feels that she’s getting old and she’s not quite ready to retire, and she has one more play in her…”
“If this is my last play, it’s the perfect play to say OK, bye.”
Baranski, who currently stars in period drama The Gilded Age, also said film producer Judy Craymer is working on the next instalment in the Mamma Mia! film series, but did not reveal if she will take part.
She said: “Well, everybody asks about it. Judy is working on it. I can only say, you know, I’ve always been reluctant to say anything because it goes viral and it spreads like brush fire.
“Even if you say maybe, everybody, especially the gays, say, ‘Oh no, it’s happening’.
“I don’t know if it’s happening, but Donna Langley, who is, you know, the head of Universal Studios, she greenlights projects.
Baranski said: ‘If this is my last play, it’s the perfect play to say OK, bye’ (Ian West/PA)
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“She actually was on a red carpet saying, ‘Yes, there will be a Mamma Mia Three’.”
Baranski played Tanya Chesham-Leigh in the films, a former bandmate of Meryl Streep’s character Donna Sheridan.
Hay Fever runs at the Wyndham’s Theatre from September 22 to December 12 2026, with a press night on October 1.