Olly Alexander lands West End role in The Importance of Being Earnest

Singer and actor Olly Alexander has said he has “come into a different space in my life”, as he announced a new West End stage role after recently parting ways with his record label.

The star will appear in the National Theatre’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest when it transfers to the West End in September.

It will be his first acting role since It’s A Sin, Channel 4’s acclaimed 2021 drama about the Aids crisis, for which he was nominated for a Bafta Award.

“I’d recently been thinking that I’d love to act again,” he told BBC News. “I’d come to the end of my record contract, and I have a bit more breathing space to try a few different things and not feel, oh, well I have to deliver an album to my record label.”

Alexander will take over from Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa, who starred in The Importance of Being Earnest when it opened at the National Theatre in 2024.

He will play Algernon when the production transfers to the Noel Coward Theatre in London.

“What’s not to love?” Alexander asked. “It’s such a brilliant play, Oscar Wilde’s most celebrated comedy. I saw the National production and thought it was fantastic, and this opportunity came along and I jumped at the chance.”

Alexander shot to fame when his band Years & Years won the BBC Sound of 2015 poll and went on to have hits such as King and Shine, and score a number one album.

He later went solo, although continued to perform as Years & Years, and scored another top-charting album in 2021. He has performed with Sir Elton John and Kylie Minogue, and was the UK’s Eurovision entrant last year.

However, after his most recent album Polari, released in February, reached number 17, Alexander announced his departure from his record label.

“They aren’t dropping me, they just aren’t renewing my contract,” he explained at the time. “It’s OK and honestly for the best. I’ve been on a pretty terrible deal for 10 years. It’s time I do something new. But I’ll still make music in the future.”

Reflecting on his first decade as a pop star, Alexander told the BBC: “With music, there’s an intensity to the way I’ve been working and putting albums out, promoting and touring. I definitely want to take the foot off the gas in terms of that intensity.”

He still occasionally works on music, but has “not been putting pressure on myself… I just do what feels good and feel very lucky that I have this other strand of acting that I’m able to explore”.

Alexander said he felt he had “learned so much” over the last decade about the way he likes to work.

“But for me,” he continued, “a lot of the reason I think the [music] industry has changed so much is that it’s set on this model which is very antiquated now, and it’s not kept pace with the times.

“Lots of artists have this direct link with their audience via social media. They want their music out quickly. The whole model of promoting it – three singles into an album, then you tour the album, then move onto the next one – it’s not really working like it did.”

He noted that record labels could historically make an album a success because they were “able to pour a lot of money into something”.

“They just can’t do that now. Everything has changed. But I think that is exciting for lots of reasons, and it is an exciting place for artists, even though it’s harder to break through.”

He concluded: “If I go back into it, it’ll be because I think it’s fun and something I want to do, and not think too much about how it’s going to perform.

“That’s pretty much how I try to always feel, but you’re in an environment where you have a lot of other stakeholders, and people telling you it needs to be this or that, and there’s always that tension.”

For now, he is focusing on acting.

First performed in 1895, The Importance of being Earnest follows two male friends who adopt fictional personas. The farcical comedy unfolds with mistaken identities and makes generous use of clever wordplay.

“In a nutshell, it’s a comedy about two quite ridiculous young men and the double lives they lead,” Alexander explained. “They do that to avoid their social obligations, and they both invent these aliases called Ernest, while they try and woo and marry these two young women.

“But really, it’s a comedy that skewers society’s expectations, makes fun of class and what society expects of us, and what roles we’re expected to perform.”

The previous production of the show, starring Gatwa, received a positive reception from critics.

“There is an elegance to the nudge-wink references and it is a production with just the right amount of delightful mischief,” wrote the Guardian’s Arifa Akbar in a four-star review.

The Daily Mail’s Patrick Marmion awarded five stars, describing the “sparkling new production” as a “witty reboot”.

“Yes, liberties are taken,” he said. “But that is surely the best way of blowing the dust off this national treasure.”

In a three-star review, the Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish described the show as “defiantly bold, but more playful than antagonistic”, although he added he wasn’t sure the new iteration “adds much” to the original.

In the play, nobody except Jack and Algernon know about their alter-egos – something which would be much more difficult to pull off now in an age of smartphones.

“It’d be impossible!” Alexander laughed. “Our every movement is captured, so there’s less room to invent aliases and lead double lives, which in some circumstances is probably for the best.

“What’s brilliant about the play is it’s set 100 years ago, at a time that feels so different to where we are now, but the themes are so timeless.”

Alexander last appeared in the West End in 2013, before becoming famous as a pop star, with a relatively small role in Peter & Alice alongside Dame Judi Dench.

In 2024, Alexander finished in 18th place at Eurovision with his track Dizzy, in a tricky year for the contest which was partly overshadowed by controversy surrounding Israel’s participation.

This year’s entrants, girl group Remember Monday, ended in a similar position, finishing 19th. Alexander praised their performance, adding that he “hopes to meet up with them soon and we can exchange stories”.

“But,” he added, “I think I’ll still be processing and reflecting [on Eurovision] for a long time.”

The singer is excited to be returning to the West End, not least because it will mean performing continuously in one venue.

“I spent a lot of my previous years moving around, touring, which is so fun and amazing,” he reflects. “But I also very much appreciate staying in one place now.

“Having a home in London with my partner, my cats, just trotting off to the theatre every night – that just sounds like the most wonderful existence.”