King Lear with Sir Ian and Barry

I had a great surprise this weekend -- my friend Barry Dennen called with free tickets to see Sir Ian McKellen as Shakespeare's King Lear at UCLA. I hadn't seen Barry for a while so it was great to reconnect with him again.

The play was long and at times tedious, but overall enjoyable. This was the Royal Shakespeare Company's touring production so all the actors were quite good and were mostly audible in Royce Hall despite the lack of amplification. Sir Ian was thoroughly old and curmudgeonly as Lear, though I didn't feel particularly moved by any of the drama.

A big surprise -- pun intended -- was during one of Lear's mad scenes and Sir Ian proceeded to strip off his shirt and drop his trousers, exposing his not insigficant manhood in the process! Maybe he was just trying to get the audience's attention or to make sure we all knew his religion: not Jewish.

Besides Sir Ian, I didn't know any of the actors in the cast except for Lear's court jester who was played by Sylvester McCoy, the seventh actor to play Doctor Who on BBC television back in the 1980s. Although I wasn't really following the show by that time, I certainly remember Sylvester in the role and it was great fun to see his humorous performance live on stage.

Another bonus was a star sighting in the audience. This was a big one, but I didn't see him until outside the theater during intermission. We went out for a breath of air and turned around and standing right behind me was Tom Hanks with his two teenage sons. They were chatting and bonding so I wouldn't have dared disturb them. A few minutes later, Tom's wife Rita Wilson joined the boys. Tom was simply dressed in a white shirt with black pants, and he looked larger in real life - he's quite tall - and a bit older. He has age spots on his face which are covered by makeup when he's performing. Although I didn't see the film, Tom and Sir Ian co-starred in The DaVinci Code last year, so no doubt Tom was there to support his friend.

After the matinee Barry took me for an excellent Italian dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in Westwood Village, Mio Babbo. We both had the fresh salmon with spaghetti and vegetables, plus a delicious merlot.

You would think that a four-hour Shakespearean tragedy followed by a rich Italian dinner would have been plenty of entertainment for one day, but no, there was more! After the play and dinner, we went down Wilshire Boulevard to the Motion Picture Academy (Mr. Dennen is a card-carrying member; he showed his card at the door.) for a free screening of Steve Carell's new romantic dramedy Dan In Real Life. It was a very touching and enjoyable film, a real feel-good story.

I love going to the Academy because they have all these gold Oscar statues standing around and red carpet on the floors. It makes you feel like Hollywood royalty or something. And I love hanging with Barry. He's such a nice guy who has had a colorful life. He told me he wants to start acting a little bit for movies and TV again. It's been over ten years since his last film....Titanic.

Overall a thoroughly satisfying day, except the bad news when I got home that the Rockies had lost Game 3 of the World Series at home in Denver to the Red Sox. One more chance to stay alive tomorrow -- come on Rockies!