Is Shakespeare the hottest ticket this season? Trevor Nunn’s Royal Shakespeare Company production of King Lear, which transfers to the New London theatre for a limited season from 15 November 2007 to 12 January 2008, has already sold out. (Of course, that’s no doubt to its title star Ian McKellen ? The Seagull, running in rep with King Lear, is also a sell-out, at least for the performances in which McKellen, who shares the role with William Gaunt, appears.)Meanwhile, Patrick Stewart’s “Macbeth of a lifetime” is causing a box-office rush at the Gielgud Theatre, where it’s just opened for ten weeks only. At the Donmar Warehouse, public booking doesn’t open until 15 October 2007 for Michael Grandage’s much-anticipated staging of Othello – starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ewan McGregor and Kelly Reilly and running from 4 December 2007 (previews from 29 November) to 23 February 2008 (See News, 11 May 2007) – but members of the theatre’s Friends scheme, who have only been allowed to purchase a maximum of four tickets each, have already made it a near sell-out.Source: www.whatsonstage.com