This week’s edition of the Evening Standard Theatre Podcast has us more than excited. Instead of our usual format, it’s dedicated to a wide-ranging interview with stage (and screen, obv) legends Sir Ian McKellen and Roger Allam, who are appearing together in the play Frank & Percy at The Other Palace, until December 3.
Allam has described the play as a “gay rom com” between two older men, but, says McKellen, Ben Weatherill’s two-hander “appeals to anyone, at least it seems to.” Audience responses have been “rather heartening for someone who remembers a time when it was illegal to be gay. But when when these two guys kiss there’s a roar of approval, from a perfectly ordinary theatre audience, which makes me think that theatre audiences are probably the best people in the world.”
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They also talk about the sadness and fear around ageing, freedom of speech and the prices of theatre tickets, and debate whether audiences should be expected to behave themselves – with some surprising results. Plus Allam remembers the day Princess Diana came to see the first production of Les Misérables, in which he played Javert: “That was a couple of million quid’s worth of free publicity...”
Buy tickets to Frank & Percy here
Listen above, or wherever you stream your podcasts.