Ian McKellen

The Guardian view on pantomime: the goose that keeps on laying | Editorial

Editorial: There’s nothing like a panto to banish the blues, especially if it stars Sir Ian McKellen as Mother Goose – the grande dame of seasonal fun and frolics

Editorial

23, Dec, 2022 @5:25 PM

Mother Goose review – zany Ian McKellen rules over a fluffy affair

Panto finds dame and co-star John Bishop in need of a boost and better jokes, though song and dance performers give it unruly energy

Arifa Akbar

12, Dec, 2022 @12:01 AM

¡Showmanism! review – astonishing lip-sync solo raises spirits

Dickie Beau offers a merry miscellany, featuring stories from Ian McKellen and Fiona Shaw, in a meditation on theatre that is closer to possession than parody

David Jays

24, Nov, 2022 @10:34 AM

Watch out for snowball-firing robots! 25 of the best UK stage shows this Christmas

Ian McKellen in Mother Goose, Robin Hood as a rock’n’roll panto, a circus spin on The Little Prince and glitter galore … it’s our selection box of festive theatre

Chris Wiegand Stage editor

09, Nov, 2022 @1:13 PM

He is the egg-man: why Ian McKellen has restored my will to live

The 83-year-old Lord of the Rings and X-Men star emerged from a giant golden egg to publicise his role in the Mother Goose panto – and given us just what we need in these troubling times

Stuart Heritage

03, Oct, 2022 @1:40 PM

The best theatre to stream this month: Billie Holiday’s blues, McKellen’s Lear and Newsies

Our roundup of stage shows to watch at home includes a Tony award-winning musical, international dance and a radical dramatisation of the crucifixion story

Chris Wiegand

01, Oct, 2022 @5:01 AM

Edinburgh fringe 2022 week one roundup: from care home tales to a Berlin fetish night

Sex, social commentary and shows with no actors: where else but the first full fringe since 2019, with standout moments from Sheeps, Bilal Zafar and ‘a show without actors’

Deborah Chu

14, Aug, 2022 @1:00 PM

Hamlet review – Ian McKellen holds court in a dumb-ballet take on the Bard

McKellen is the only speaker in Peter Schaufuss’s eccentric but witless adaptation of Hamlet as narrative ballet

Mark Fisher

05, Aug, 2022 @9:53 PM

On my radar: Ian McKellen’s cultural highlights

The actor on the radical joy of the Proms, a fun gay club night and the theatre he treasures most of all

Ian McKellen

23, Jul, 2022 @2:00 PM

Edinburgh festival 2022: 50 shows to see

Phil Wang makes a heroic return, Ian McKellen stars in a balletic Hamlet and Sophie Duker is gleefully carefree. Here are our picks of the festival’s comedy, theatre and dance

Brian Logan, Mark Fisher and Lyndsey Winship

06, Jul, 2022 @6:45 AM

Hamlet Within: why are we so obsessed with Shakespeare’s dithering prince?

A provocative new film at Cannes featuring Ian McKellen attempts to de-romanticise the Dane but lags behind what theatre productions have been telling us for decades

Michael Billington

27, May, 2022 @12:30 PM

Ian McKellen to play Hamlet at the Edinburgh fringe

The actor will share the role with Danish dancer Johan Christensen in a new production this summer