Theatre review: Hay Fever

Noël Coward's Hay Fever returns to the West End, this time in a production by Emily Burns whose star turn of Christine Baranski convinced me to book; but while I can't accuse it of not being an entertaining evening, I think this should probably be the last time I give this particular play a go. Baranski plays Judith Bliss, a recently-retired stage actress who made her name in torrid melodramas, and keeps threatening to return to them as her new life in the country has been boring her lately. So much so that she's invited a devoted young fan of hers, Sandy Tyrrell (Ash Hunter) to stay with her for the weekend. She hasn't forewarned her family though, and as it turns out all four of them have got surprise guests on the way - and all four of them have gone for a vague acquaintance some decades older or younger than them whom they plan on flirting with.So her daughter Sorel (Ophelia Lovibond) has invited the socially awkward diplomat Richard Greatham (Charles Edwards) and her son Simon…