An Ideal Husband **** TNT

The perfect partner turns out to have feet of clay in Oscar Wilde’s 1895 melodrama concerning a high-flying politician whose first foothold on the ladder of success was gained by dubious means.

There’s an initial surfeit of ostentatiously witty padding, and the idealistic Lady Chiltern’s declarations of her husband’s virtues are too long-winded, but these are minor niggles in a strongly plotted play.

Elliot Cowan relishes the comic aspects of an apparently superficial dandy who turns out to have surprising moral strengths, Alexander Hanson’s Chiltern agonises over the threatened exposure of the youthful insider dealing which could end both his marriage and his career, and Samantha Bond (his real life wife) glitters dangerously as the mysterious Mrs. Cheveley who seems to hold all the cards in Lindsay Posner’s gilt-edged production.

Vaudeville, Strand WC2R 0NH (0844 412 4663) Tube: Charing Cross www.anidealhusbandwestend.com Until February 19 (£27.50 - £50.50)