Ian McKellen was injured on Monday while performing in 'Player Kings' at the Noël Coward Theatre in London.
Sir Ian McKellen was rushed to the hospital on Monday when the beloved actor accidentally fell off stage during a performance.
McKellen, 85, was performing in a production of Player Kings at the Noël Coward Theatre in London, and amid a fight scene, he lost his footing and fell. The BBC was the first to report.
It was not immediately clear what injuries, if any, McKellen sustained in the fall. However, the theater was evacuated and the production was canceled for the evening.
Player Kings is an adaptation of Parts 1 and 2 of Henry IV, with McKellen in the leading role as John Falstaff. His run on the show has been received with universal critical acclaim.
According to the BBC, the incident occurred as McKellen's Falstaff was circling a battle involving his co-lead, Toheeb Jimoh (playing Henry Percy), and he fell off the front of the stage and cried out for help.
ET spoke to Veronika Muzika, who was an audience member during the incident. Muzika said she at first thought McKellen's accident was part of the play.
"So he fell down the orchestra pit just in front of our eyes and he was screaming something like, 'Help,' and I thought it was part of the play because there were a lot of wounded people, like, you know, it's a war act, and yeah, it was quite shocking," she says. "He seemed like he was moving pretty OK through the stage as normal. I didn't see any kind of tripping. Maybe there was some slippery sort of fabric or something and it must have been something really, really small because he was acting and walking naturally until the last step when he actually fell and that's why I thought it was staged."
Charlie Johnson, who was also in attendance at the event, took to X (formerly Twitter) to detail what he had seen.
"Just witnessed Ian Mckellan severely injure himself after falling off stage at Noel Coward Theatre. Sir Ian could be heard screaming in pain as ushers rushed to his aid," he wrote. "Show cancelled as he is treated by ambulance crews. Wish him all the best."
ET spoke with Johnson via video chat on Tuesday, and he detailed his experience at the performance.
"I was in the front row. I was probably about three or four meters from where Sir Ian fell off," Johnson shared, explaining that the fall happened "during a battle scene -- so there were lights going on and off and it was quite dark."
"So I'm not sure if he slipped on a prop or he overstepped slightly and lost his balance," he continued. "What I did see was Sir Ian pretty much diving head first into the audience and actually landed, from what I saw, on one of the members of the audience, and within seconds, you could hear Sir Ian screaming."
"He was shouting, 'Help me! Help me!' And the lights all went on and the curtain was drawn and within another five, ten seconds the ushers came over, members of the cast were looking to see if he was OK," Johnson recalled. "As time went on, within a minute really, the whole of the auditorium was evacuated, so that Sir Ian could be treated with a bit of privacy."
"It was really frightening," Johnson said. "I never really heard someone scream like that in pain, other than on the rugby pitch after someone smacked their wrist in half, so I immediately feared the worst -- especially because Sir Ian is 85 years old and a fall like that can be really bad for someone at that age."
The production team behind Player Kings tells ET of McKellen's on-stage fall at the Noël Coward theatre, "Thank you to our audience and the general public for their well wishes following Ian's fall during this evening’s performance."
"Following a scan, the brilliant NHS team have assured us that he will make a speedy and full recovery and Ian is in good spirits," the statement continued. "The production has made the decision to cancel the performance on Tuesday 18 June so Ian can rest. Those affected will be contacted by their point of purchase as soon as possible tomorrow. Thank you to doctors Rachel and Lee who were on hand in the audience and to all the venue staff for their support."
The production is scheduled to tour a series of London theaters through July 27.
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