The tragedy of 'King Lear' tickets

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Tickets for Ian McKellan's U.S. performances of “King Lear” with the Royal Shakespeare Company are fetching record sums through online distributors.

McKellan, who played the wizard Gandolf in the film version of “The Lord of the Rings,” is touring with the RSC on a limited engagement, marking his first appearance with the company in 17 years.

Major online ticket resellers list tickets to UCLA’s Royal Hall performance at $936 to $1,706. Another online auction site listed a pair of tickets to the final Los Angeles show at $3,000, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Sean Pate, spokesmen for the online ticket seller StubHub, told the Times the highest price actually paid on the site for tickets to the performance was $2,106.

McKellan commented that the inflated ticket prices should be more of a reflection of the RSC than his performance, telling the Times “I don’t take it personally. I mean, it is the Royal Shakespeare Company doing ‘King Lear’ directed by Trevor Nunn.”

Tickets for the UCLA shows sold out the first day they went on sale to the public with a top price of $90.