Being stuck in limbo has never been so magnetic.
Credit the top-notch tag team of Ian McKellen[1] and Patrick Stewart[2] , classically trained actors now famous for playing superpowered “X-Men” enemies.
The stars behind Magneto and Charles Xavier go head-to-head again and light up Broadway in Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” and Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.”
The vintage purgatory tales, performed in repertory under the direction of Sean Mathias, are unapologetically enigmatic. But amid Pinter’s elliptical storytelling and pregnant pauses and Beckett’s existential mystery, ideas about power, class, memory and mortality get your gray matter buzzing.
“No Man’s Land,” first seen in 1975, unfolds in the den of an English manse. The room has a striking semicircular wall. The main feature: a well-stocked bar that gets lots of traffic.
The place belongs to Hirst (Stewart), a rich author whose success doesn’t keep him from getting lost in foggy forgetfulness. Spooner (McKellen) is a shabby failed writer who’s been invited for a nightcap — or 50 — and may never get out.
The whisky flows, served neat. The conversation, like the wall, is curvy. It’s unclear if Hirst and Spooner really know each other from university. Also uncertain: Did Hirst, as he blithely recalls, bed Spooner’s girl?
McKellen’s silent slow-burn response speaks volumes. He’s got one of the most expressive faces, voices and command of body language on the planet. Stewart gets Hirst’s imperiousness and vulnerability just right.
Lending support as Hirst’s henchmen are Billy Crudup and Shuler Hensley. They’re strangely appealing even as they ramp up the Pinteresque chill and menace.
©2013 Joan Marcus
Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”
More familiar but a bit less successful, Mathias’ “Godot” needs a shot of dread. Beckett’s 60-year-old masterwork is too spry and buoyant for its own good here.
The story tracks two days days in the lives of Estragon (McKellen) and Vladimir (Stewart), ragbag tramps cooling their heels amid rubble on the side of a road. They’re expecting the ever-elusive titular figure.
“Nothing to be done,” says Estragon. That goes for getting stood up, painful shoes, life and death — or this show’s exaggerated goofy takes on Pozzo (Hensley) and his servile Lucky (Crudup, a dead ringer for Riff Raff from “Rocky Horror”). Attention goes slack as a result.
Fortunately the stars grip tight. Stewart is hearty and game. McKellen, even better, is hilarious and heartbreaking. It’s a fine bromance — Broadway is lucky to have it.
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How tweet it is.
When they’re not on Broadway headlining “Waiting for Godot” and “No Man’s Land,” supercool <NO1>seventy<NO>70-something superstars Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen have been partying it up around the city — and showing off their exploits to their 1.4 million collective Twitter followers.
Fans of @IanMcKellen and @SirPatStew have caught endearing snaps of the actors, clad in their “Godot” bowler hats, grabbing hot dogs in Coney Island, tipping elbows at one of the city’s oldest bars and hoofing it across the Brooklyn Bridge.
These vets know their way around the stage — and social media. And it’s paying off: the shows are doing brisk business, with an average of 90% of seats filled.
jdziemianowicz@nydailynews.com
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