Sir Ian supported his theatre colleague’s passion, but not going to prison (Picture: Rex/BBC One)
Sir Ian McKellen has backed composer and theatre impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘passion’ for re-opening theatres to audiences as normal, but stopped short of supporting him breaking the law as ‘prison’s going a bit far’.
Sir Ian was on the programme to discuss his upcoming production of Hamlet, due to open next week, but now under the cloud of continuing lockdown restrictions, which he described as ‘a bore’.
Admitting he was grateful not to be the producer of his show, who’d now have to shift ticketholders to different dates to honour social-distancing measures, he revealed they’d sold ‘a lot of tickets’.
But with a positive measure in place for theatre-lovers, he confirmed there was ‘no doubt’ that Hamlet would be opening next Monday at the Theatre Royal Windsor ‘as planned, but it will be social distancing for a little longer than we’d hoped’.
But when presenter Ronan Keating asked him for his thoughts on Lloyd Webber’s statement that he would risk getting arrested to open up his theatres as normal Sir Ian pointed out that he wasn’t sure that would work for him.
The distinguished actor joked: ‘If you compose music, you could, couldn’t you, be happy in prison? But who am I going to act for there when I’m in there? It wouldn’t work for me.’