Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart head to Broadway together in two shows

Magneto and Professor Xavier, together again: Sirs Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart will star together on Broadway in not one but two productions this fall. The shows, Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, will be performed in repertory and both will be directed by Sean Mathias. Waiting for Godot was last on Broadway just four years ago; No Man’s Land last appeared on the Great White Way in 1994, starring a Tony-nominated Christopher Plummer.

This isn’t the first time the two legends have shared the spotlight. In 1977 they performed in the premiere of Tom Stoppard’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favour; in addition, of course, the two both appear in the X-Men movies.

“British actors are used to playing in repertory, whether for the National Theatre or the Royal Shakespeare Company,” McKellen said in a press release. “We enjoy the challenge of variety, and audiences, myself included, enjoy watching a group of actors in contrasting roles. We hope, at least once a week, to give Broadway audiences the chance of seeing Beckett and Pinter on adjacent nights, perhaps even on the same day.”

“All my acting life, I have been drawn to the principals and practice of a ‘company,’ and working with familiar, trusted friends/colleagues,” said Stewart, “whether in British repertory theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company, “Star Trek” or X-Men. It’s not that strangeness/newness isn’t exciting – it is – but when there is a common language and experience, then the unpredictable can happen. So, Ian McKellen, Sean Mathias, Stephen Brimson Lewis, Sam Beckett, Harold Pinter- plus two yet-to-be cast actors – it feels good.”

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