Wizard of the West End

SIR IAN MCKELLEN is sitting backstage at London's Lyric Theatre, a prestigious venue that overlooks the Windmill strip club in sex-driven Soho. Far from being perturbed by the district, or even the cockroach trap on his dressing-room floor, the star of The Lord of the Rings and The X-Men — two of Hollywood's biggest franchises — is gleeful about returning to the West End after 13 years to perform in Strindberg's The Dance of Death, which opens March 4. "I'm so excited about working in this street," he says. "The strip club is next door to a...