Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen to Star on Broadway in Repertory

 

Theater and film fans have some big names to watch for this fall: The New York Times is reporting that Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, who have starred together several times in the “X-Men” films, will return to Broadway together in the fall for a two-play repertory of Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” and Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.” 

Directed by Tony-nominee Sean Mathias, the two plays—both bleakly funny existential classics by Nobel Prize-wining writers—will run in rotation, sometimes on adjacent nights and possibly on the same days as matinee and evening performances. Such repertory schedules are fairly common in British theater but rare on Broadway; the three-play cycle of “The Norman Conquests” played in repertory in 2009 and the three parts of “Coast of Utopia” ran during the 2006-07 season, but those productions mostly featured actors sticking to the same roles.

Stewart, who earned a Tony nomination in 2008 for his performance in the title role of Macbeth, will play Vladimir in “Godot” and Hirst in “No Man’s Land.” McKellen, who won a Tony in 1981 for “Amadeus,” will play opposite him as Estragon in “Godot” and Spooner in “No Man’s Land.” Additional casting for the plays will be announced later, as will the performance dates and theater.

Mathias directed Stewart and McKellen in their roles in “Godot” in a London production in 2009. The three men will prepare “No Man’s Land” this summer with a try-out production to be announced later.

“Godot” was last on Broadway in 2009 starring Bill Irwin and Nathan Lane, while “No Man’s Land” last ran in 1994 with Jason Robards and Christopher Plummer.