Britain
The first West End revival was presented by George Alexander in May 1914 at the St James's Theatre, and featured Arthur Wontner as Sir Robert Chiltern, Phyllis Neilson-Terry as Lady Chiltern, Hilda Moore as Mrs Cheveley and Alexander as Lord Goring. The play was next staged in London at the Westminster Theatre in 1943–44, with Manning Whiley as Sir Robert Chiltern, Rosemary Scott as Lady Chiltern, Martita Hunt as Mrs Cheveley, Roland Culver as Lord Goring and Irene Vanbrugh as Lady Markby, set design by Rex Whistler.[19]
A London revival in 1965–66 ran at three West End theatres in succession; it starred Michael Denison as Sir Robert Chiltern, Dulcie Gray as Lady Chiltern, Margaret Lockwood as Mrs Cheveley and Richard Todd as Lord Goring. The play was again seen at the Westminster in 1989 in a short-lived revival, and in 1992 a new production was presented at the Globe Theatre which was subsequently seen in four other London theatres and on Broadway between November 1992 and March 1999. It was directed by Peter Hall, and the original cast featured David Yelland as Sir Robert Chiltern, Hannah Gordon as Lady Chiltern, Anna Carteret as Mrs Cheveley, Martin Shaw as Lord Goring, Michael Denison as Lord Caversham and Dulcie Gray as Lady Markby. The various stagings of the production ran for an aggregate three years, the longest running production of a Wilde play.[b]
A production at the Vaudeville Theatre, London in 2010–11 featured Alexander Hanson as Sir Robert Chiltern, Rachael Stirling as Lady Chiltern, Samantha Bond as Mrs Cheveley and Elliot Cowan. A revival at the same theatre in 2018 featured Nathaniel Parker and Sally Bretton as the Chilterns, the father and son combination of Edward Fox as Lord Caversham and Freddie Fox as Lord Goring, and Frances Barber as Mrs Cheveley, and Susan Hampshire as Lady Markby.[19]
International
The play was seen in the US in March 1895, running at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway for 40 performances.[20] It was revived on Broadway at the Comedy Theatre in 1918 with a cast including Norman Trevor and Beatrice Beckley as the Chilterns, Julian L'Estrange as Lord Goring and Constance Collier as Mrs Cheveley.[21] The next (and at 2021 the most recent) Broadway presentation was Peter Hall's production, seen at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1996–97, featuring its original West End lead players, except for the Lady Chiltern, now played by Penny Downie.[22]
An Ideal Husband was produced in Australia in April 1895 by the Brough-Boucicault company;[23] they gave the play its New Zealand premiere later in the same year.[24] The Irish premiere was in Dublin in 1896, given (with no mention of the author's name) by a touring company managed by Hawtrey, at the Gaiety Theatre. The cast included Alma Stanley as Mrs Cheveley and Cosmo Stuart, promoted from his small role in the London production, as Lord Goring.[25]
A French translation was given in Geneva in 1944.[26] The first performance in France recorded by Les Archives du spectacle was in 1955; the site records seven French productions between then and 2016.[26]
Settings
Rex Whistler designs for the 1943–44 London revival:
Commemoration
To mark the centenary of the first production, Sir John Gielgud unveiled a plaque at the Haymarket Theatre in January 1995, in the presence of, among many others, Wilde's grandson Merlin Holland and the Marquess of Queensberry.[27]
