‘Gandalf the Gray fell off the stage and straight onto me,’ recalls shocked London audience member

A London theater regular has described the moment Sir Ian McKellen fell off the stage and onto her knees, saying she “was in shock”.

Johanna Dart was attending a production of Player Kings at the Noel Coward Theater in London’s West End on Monday evening when the Lord of the Rings star lost her footing during a fight scene and fell from the stage to the front row where she was seated.

Dart told the BBC: “Being crushed by Gandalf the Gray is something you don’t expect. »

She recalled how the 85-year-old theater knight appeared to trip over a prop on stage before falling and landing head-first on her knees. She added that she had enjoyed the show immensely up until that point.

Charlie Johnson, a Kingston Courier journalist who was in the audience, told ITV News: “As we approached the interval of the play,…