Ian McKellen cast in drag

Film star Ian McKellen, who played the wizard Gandalf in the Oscar-winning “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, will appear on stage as a cranky pantomime dame later this year, actor Kevin Spacey said Thursday.

McKellen will play Widow Twanky in December in a reworking of the classic pantomime story of Aladdin that is taken from the “Arabian Nights” tales, Spacey told a news conference to announce his first season as artistic director of London’s Old Vic Theatre Company.

Spacey, appointed to the post last year, said he would kick off in September directing a work by Dutch playwright Maria Goos. After the pantomime run in December, he will stage and star in “National Anthems,” a play by Dennis McIntyre. He said the season would finish with “The Philadelphia Story.”