Directed by Sean Mathias, the production will arrive on Broadway Oct. 26, running in repertory with Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, at the Cort Theatre with an official opening Nov. 24. This limited season will run 14 weeks only. (Tickets for the Broadway engagement are available by visiting telecharge.com or by calling (212) 239-6200.)
Both productions will feature sets and costumes by Stephen Brimson Lewis, lighting by Peter Kaczorowski, sound by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen, projections by Zachary Borovay and hair by Tom Watson.
Billy Crudup won a Tony Award for The Coast of Utopia. Shuler Hensley won a Tony Award for Oklahoma! Ian McKellen made his Broadway debut in Arbuzov’s The Promise in 1967 and won the Tony Award for his performance in Amadeus in 1981. Patrick Stewart first appeared on Broadway in Peter Brook’s production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1971 and won the Drama Desk Award for A Christmas Carol in 1992. McKellen and Stewart have appeared together on stage once before. In 1977 they performed in the premiere of Tom Stoppard’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favour. Both McKellen and Stewart have received knighthoods for their services to drama and the performing arts.
In Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land, according to press notes, "we wonder if two writers, Hirst (Patrick Stewart) and Spooner (Ian McKellen) really know each other, or are they performing an elaborate charade? The ambiguity - and the comedy - intensify with the arrival of two other men, Briggs (Shuler Hensley) and Foster (Billy Crudup). Do all four inhabit a no-man's-land between the present and time remembered, between reality and fantasy?"
Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot "follows two consecutive days in the lives of Vladimir (Patrick Stewart) and Estragon (Ian McKellen), who divert themselves by clowning around, joking and arguing, while waiting expectantly and unsuccessfully for the mysterious Godot. While they are waiting, two strangers appear: Pozzo (Shuler Hensley) and Lucky (Billy Crudup)." Waiting for Godot played a critically acclaimed, sold-out run in London’s West End in 2009 with McKellen and Stewart.
No Man’s Land and Waiting for Godot will be produced on Broadway by Stuart Thompson and NOMANGO Productions. NOMANGO Productions is a consortium of Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Sean Mathias and a group of investors.
Tickets at Berkeley Rep range from $35-$135; subscribers to Berkeley Rep save $5 on every ticket. Additional savings are available for groups, seniors, students and anyone under 30 years of age. The Roda Theatre is located at 2015 Addison Street. For tickets or information, call (510) 647-2949 or click berkeleyrep.org.
