Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen Coming to Broadway in ‘Waiting for Godot,’ ‘No Man’s Land’

Legendary English actors Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are both returning to Broadway, and both will star in “No Man’s Land” and “Waiting for Godot.” Both productions will be directed by Sean Mathias and will be performed in repertory.

The plays will be presented sometime in the fall of this year, though no other casting, theater or dates have been announced.

“British actors are used to playing in repertory, whether for the National Theatre or the Royal Shakespeare Company,” said McKellen in a statement. “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 Becket and Pinter on adjacent nights, perhaps even on the same day.”

Stewart also expressed his excitement about the format in the release.

“All my acting life, I have been drawn to the principals and practice of a ‘company,’ and working with familiar, trusted friends/colleagues, whether in British repertory theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, ‘Star Trek’ or ‘X-Men.’” Stewart said. “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 Mathais, Stephen Brimson Lewis, Sam Beckett Harold Pinter – plus two yet-to-be cast actors – it feels good.”

Pinter wrote “No Man’s Land,” while Beckett is the author of “Waiting for Godot.”

“In ‘Waiting for Godot,’ two men exist in a universe that is both real and imagined – a place where time does not always advance towards a future,” said Mathias. “And as the two men wait, two outsiders enter to disrupt that universe. In ‘No Man’s Land,’ two men inhabit a land that is neither here nor there – a land where time and memory play unreliable tricks. And as these two men converse, two other men who are both familiar and unfamiliar enter this same land with unnerving effect.”