If you’re intent on seeing Keanu Reeves engaging in an existential struggle with life, you can save lots of money. Instead of shelling out big bucks to see the actor on Broadway co-starring with Alex Winter in the new revival Waiting for Godot, just check out any of the John Wick films, especially John Wick: Chapter 4. In that chapter of the hit action movie franchise, Reeves’ Wick desperately attempts to scale the 222 steps leading up to the Sacre-Coeur Basilica in Paris. He climbs the stairs over and over again, only to be repeatedly and brutally forced back down by a team of assassins who are intent on preventing him from reaching the summit. It’s absurdism of the highest order, and Samuel Beckett would have been proud to have written it.
Lately, revivals of Beckett’s classic play seem to be motivated by the desires of longtime actor friends to bring their personal bonds to the stage. That was true of the stars of the most recent major revivals — Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan, and Michael Shannon and Paul Sparks — who effectively brought their personal chemistry to their performances as Beckett’s hapless tramps. The same seems to be the impetus for this new Broadway production reuniting the stars of the hit screen comedies Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and its two sequels.
The producers of the show seem nervous about how the actors’ fanbase will react to seeing Godot, taking pains to emphasize in the marketing materials that nothing happens in the play. “The Greatest Play Ever Written About Nothing,” the ads proclaim.
[Read Elysa Gardner’s ★★★☆☆ review here.]
“Seriously. Nothing Happens,” they add, as if worried that audience members new to the play will riot out of sheer boredom. Director Jamie Lloyd does throw fans a bone, having the two stars erupt in a brief “Bill and Ted” bit of business that had the sold-out crowd shrieking with delight. (Somehow, I don’t remember Stewart and McKellan referencing X-Men in their go-around.)
Yes, it’s white-hot director Lloyd at the helm of the production, which is not hard to guess when the theater ushers are wearing his company’s t-shirts. The script provided for reviewers features JAMIE LLOYD CO. in giant black lettering on the first page, while the play’s title and author are relegated to page two.
The director at least seems to have reined in his more outlandish impulses for this production. There’s nary a video camera or screen to be found. And somehow the actors manage to remain in the theater while performing the show, resisting the impulse to wander over to Times Square to wait for Godot over there.
But neither has Lloyd brought anything distinctive to it either, unless you count the undeniably striking scenic design by Soutra Gilmour that has the actors performing in what looks like a giant missile silo. Or, considering Beckett’s well-known demands for fidelity to his stage directions, it’s possibly the inside of the tree that the playwright specifies for the scenery. Whatever it is, it causes problems for anyone seated on the sides of the auditorium whenever the actors venture deep within it. But then, Lloyd has never been overly concerned about sightlines.
So how are Bill and Ted, excuse me, Winter and Reeves? They’re…okay, to use a technical theater term. The actors seem insecure about their credentials, with Reeves’ Playbill bio concentrating largely on his theatrical credits — we learn he attended a summer program at Hedgerow Theatre in Pennsylvania and played Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet at the Leah Posluns Theatre in Toronto — with only a few sentences devoted to his more than 75 films. Winters’ bio also leads with his stage career, including appearing on Broadway as a child actor in The King & I and with Sandy Duncan in Peter Pan.
The actors manage to hold their own, although their lack of seasoned stage chops is made more evident by the excellent supporting turns from theatrical veterans Brandon J. Dirden, mesmerizing as a Southern-accented Pozzo, and Michael Patrick Thornton, arresting as a wheelchair-bound Lucky. Reeves has always projected a certain spacey, ethereal quality in his persona which works well for his Estragon, while the hangdog Winter effectively conveys an air of pathos as Vladimir. But they don’t come close to truly conveying the characters’ existential despair, nor their vaudevillian-style clowning. To compensate, Lloyd has them frequently sliding up and down the sloping walls of the set, like children at a playground, to garner cheap laughs.
He also has them miming objects rather than holding props, providing sound effects when needed. Indeed, the production leans heavily on echoey sound effects and dramatic lighting shifts for emphasis, as if not trusting the play’s language. It all seems more than a bit gimmicky, especially when the audience is encouraged to clap along while Lucky “dances” by tipping his hat. Lloyd also injects one of his visual trademarks into the scene when Estragon drops his pants. Instead of the shabby underwear you would expect, Reeves sports tight black briefs.
Listen, if it takes Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter to attract younger audiences to Beckett’s work, so be it. It may not be the greatest introduction, but hopefully it will serve as a gateway drug to deeper explorations.
Waiting for Godot opened September 28, 2025, at the Hudson Theatre and runs through January 4, 2026. Tickets and information: godotbroadway.com
