Sir Ian McKellen has revealed that his professional bucket list isn't quite complete – because he wants to star in a stage musical.
During an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today program Tuesday (January 25), the 82-year-old actor acknowledged that career-wise, he "doesn't have much to prove anymore." Appearing in a musical, he added, is "one of the few areas left."
McKellen has appeared in two recent movie musicals – Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast and director Tom Cooper's notorious adaptation of Cats. During the interview, he noted that he also sang "in a fashion" when he starred in the Aladdin pantomime at London's Old Vic theater in 2004.
"I can hold a tune but I’m not a proper singer," he said, before adding playfully: "I'm available but incompetent."
Last year McKellen returned to the stage in productions of Hamlet and The Cherry Orchard at the Theatre Royal Windsor. Before that, in 2019-20, he completed an extensive tour of his one-man show Ian McKellen on Stage: With Tolkien, Shakespeare, Others and YOU, with all proceeds going to the particular theater he was performing at.
"I don't feel I have much to prove in my career anymore so why not just do the things I enjoy doing, like getting in front of an audience and entertaining them," he said during the interview. The actor was speaking on the Today program to promote Whodunnit (Unreheased) 2, a series of fundraising performances at London's Finsbury Park theater that will feature surprise one-off appearances from McKellen, Emma Thompson, and Sanjeev Bhaskar, among others.
What kind of musical do you think Ian McKellen should sign up for?