Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” is a staple of the theatrical canon. Having premiered in 1953, the play first bowed on Broadway in 1956, starring Bert Lahr and E.G. Marshall. Subsequent Broadway productions have starred Bill Irwin and Nathan Lane as well as Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart as the central pair of Vladimir and Estragon — two “tramps” who wait for someone called Godot. An existential play, “Godot” is constantly revisited. The newest revival will begin performances at the Hudson Theatre on Sept. 13, and it’s raring to be a unique take.
“Jamie Lloyd talks about the production we’re doing being [thought] about [as] a radio play,” actor Keanu Reeves told Broadway News during the press day for his upcoming Broadway debut, “Waiting for Godot.” “What does a radio play do? It makes the play alive in terms of the imagination of the listener.”
“And the performer,” Reeves’ co-star Alex Winter interjected. “If it’s you and I engaged with [the characters] Pozzo and Lucky, suddenly our imagination is on fire.”
But, of course, the 2025 revival of “Godot” will take place in a Broadway house — not a recording booth. It will be fully staged by three-time Tony Award-nominated director Lloyd. “When I say something like that — [think of it as a radio play] — it’s about going back to that very deep connection to the material,” Lloyd said. “Sometimes on radio, because it’s so intimate, the actors are able to go down and in instead of up and out. They can internalize these ideas.”
The concept is that the perceived smallness of radio will create a groundedness and depth in the actors’ performances. The idea came from an encounter between Lloyd and the great playwright Harold Pinter. “When Harold Pinter was alive, I went into his study one day and he had a copy of ‘King Lear’ on his desk, and I was like, ‘Why are you reading ‘King Lear’?” Lloyd recalled. “It turned out that he was preparing to play the role on radio. And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s really cool because instead of yelling and screaming at the storm, at the wind and the rain, you can come down and in, you can kind of whisper to the universe.”
Lloyd added, “It’s about trying to communicate at scale, but actually the whole of the universe is within you.”
Lloyd, Reeves and Winter, as well as fellow cast members Brandon J. Dirden and Michael Patrick Thornton further explain this approach, their takes on their characters and the ways in which this revival came about in this episode of “Broadway Press Day with Ruthie Fierberg.” Listen below:
