Ian McKellen & Patrick Stewart to Reunite in Waiting For Godot & No Man’s Land on Broadway

Former X-Men co-stars Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are teaming up to star in Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot on Broadway this fall. Both productions will be directed by Sean Mathias. McKellen and Stewart co-starred in a sold-out  West End engagement of Godot in 2009. No Man’s Land is scheduled to play an out-of-town engagement this summer, but no details have been announced. No additional casting, exact dates or theater for either production have been set.

No Man’s Land tells the story of two writers, Hirst (Stewart) and Spooner (McKellen)—but do they really know each other, or are they performing an elaborate charade? The ambiguity intensifies when two other men arrive. Does the quartet inhabit a place between reality and fantasy? No Man’s Land  premiered in 1975 at the National Theatre in London, then debuted on Broadway in 1976.

Waiting For Godot follows the lives of Vladimir (Stewart) and Estragon (McKellen), two men who distract themselves by joking, arguing and clowning around while waiting for the elusive Godot. The play premiered in Paris in 1953 before opening on Broadway in 1956. Both productions will include sets and costumes by Stephen Brimson Lewis and lighting by Peter Kaczorowski.

Stewart earned a Tony nomination for Macbeth. His additional Broadway credits include A Life in the Theatre, The Caretaker, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and his solo adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Best known as Captain Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek, his additional film and TV credits include American Dad!, Family Guy the 2009 TV movie adaptation of Hamlet and the X-Men movies, alongside McKellen.

McKellen earned a Tony Award for Amadeus and an additional nomination for Ian McKellen: Acting Shakespeare. His other Broadway credits include Dance of Death, Wild Honey, Amadeus, The Promise and his solo show Ian McKellen: A Night Out at the Lyceum. Known as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films, McKellen’s additional film and TV credits include Stardust, The Prisoner, Coronation Street and Gods and Monsters.