Try GOLD - Free
Snobs don’t understand what panto’s about, says new Mother Goose star Ian McKellen
Evening Standard
|October 03, 2022
HIS recent roles include Hamlet and King Lear but Sir Ian McKellen is preparing to do panto in the West End — and said critics who are snobbish about it do not understand the art form.
The 83-year-old actor, who became a worldwide star playing the wizard Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings saga, will appear alongside John Bishop and Mel Giedroyc in Mother Goose at the Duke of York’s Theatre.
He told the Standard the show was the “bit of fun everyone needs at this time”.
He said: “The thing about pantomime is it is always changing, it is always getting itself up to date. I’ve always been as keen a theatregoer as I have been an actor and I see things very much from an audience’s point of view and pantomime is very important.
This story is from the October 03, 2022 edition of Evening Standard.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 10,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MORE STORIES FROM Evening Standard
The London Standard
Southbank salutes half a century of love and skate
This is a nice touch.
3 mins
May 07, 2026
The London Standard
Arrowtown, New Zealand
I arrived in Arrowtown, a historic gold-mining village in New Zealand's South Island, expecting a picturesque detour as part of a wider Otago itinerary and left plotting my return.
2 mins
May 07, 2026
The London Standard
The unsettling thrill of murder most academic
Yrsa, a Cambridge PhD student researching Afropessimism, doesn't intend to take Richardson's life.
1 mins
May 07, 2026
The London Standard
Oh, what a send up! The joke is on Ralph Fiennes in this love letter to theatre greats
Here's a warm, entertaining love-letter to a blended family of British theatrical pioneers, in which Ralph Fiennes sends himself up delightfully.
2 mins
May 07, 2026
The London Standard
Lady Amelia Windsor and Lykke Li have a royally good time at Selfridges
Private members' clubs are sprouting up across London at a rate of knots.
1 min
May 07, 2026
The London Standard
THE SOUTH WEST IS BEST, SAYS MOLLY COOPER
From endless skies and soaring cliffs to feast nights on the sand and beach after divine beach, Devon and Cornwall are heaven on Earth for the travel curator
4 mins
May 07, 2026
The London Standard
Founder Catherine Hurley Arbibe
The gut health advocate starts the day with a downward dog, eats plenty of fibre, loves a second breakfast-and avoids weekday TV
3 mins
May 07, 2026
The London Standard
Good times are assured at this prince of Poles
Just after a business collapses, as restaurants so often seem to do, owners rummage for explanations.
3 mins
May 07, 2026
The London Standard
Ralph Fiennes and Tobias Menzies toast theatreland—and Cora Corré is in the mix for cocktails
On the list of things which do not get us in the mood for a party, watching a play (with no interval) about a school shooter ranks pretty high.
1 min
May 07, 2026
The London Standard
There's a rare bird going cheap in Soho
Moods, atmospheres, places change.
1 mins
May 07, 2026
Translate
Change font size
