Player Kings - Wimbledon / MCR / Noel Coward / Tour

McKellen has now withdrawn from the tour.

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.

Not unexpected news, but still a shame. I wish him well. His commitment to trying to get people into theatres is admirable, especially at his age.

Very off-topic, but I'd like to second that

No refunds accepted by Theatre Royal Norwich, indeed I even asked for credit to my account if refunds werent an option and that was also refused.

That is very poor. The producers should cover refunds at Norwich, who are they ? ATG ? 

I couldn't really recommend this play to the casual theatre-goer without McKellen, it is by far the least interesting production directed by Robert Icke that I've seen.  

I wasn't asking about the owners of the venue itself but rather the producers of the actual production. 

Genuinely surprised that ATG didn’t go down the “you book the show, not the star” route.

Was tempted to give this a go after all but now McKellen’s out, won’t bother. The tickets in Birmingham are still on the expensive side.

An update on Norwich, received an email today stating that the Norwich managment had been looking at ways to address people who had booked "an A plus" priced ticket, which apparently I did, and was at the time in March priced at 69 pounds, and because I had "paid extra to be closer to see Ian Mckellan" how the managment could issue some kind of gesture for his abscence.

A partial refund of 11 pounds.... to bring the A plus tickets in line with the A price tickets. So only those who paid top price will be getting any kind of partial refund? And 11 pounds off a 69 pounds ticket with the big name star who was front and centre and his name used to sell the production, now not appearing? Not very impressed and 11 pounds off to only those who originally booked the top price tickets only to me seems a bizarre decision for them to make. I have told them so in a follow up email.

Ha ha. Surely everyone except those in the very cheapest seats had “paid extra to be closer” ?

Wow. The nerve. 

I could only manage the first half and actually thought it was a pretty good stand alone play, nearly 2 hours in length and I debated at the interval wether to stay for about more of the same in length, but told myself I had had enough. Look I'm really not the biggest fan of Shakespeare as I find you really have to switch on and follow things very closely and the dialogue and 1 hour 50 straight through was enough for me.

Mckellans understudy pretty good in the Falstaff role. Some funny moments and lines, I especially liked the moment at the near end of part 1 with Falstaff and the curtain which drew many laughs and all in all i dis enjoy this as it seems did most of the people and would even be interested in the second part, just not right after the first given the length! To be fair it did seem to zip along

A word on attendance, stalls were mostly full, some empty seats here and there but pretty solid, I understand the circle was less well attended, it seems given the refusal to give a refund in Mckellans absence that people came to see it anyway, of course the interesting thing to see would be how many would have gone along had TRN offered refunds, and that we shall never know.