Is Samuel Beckett's return to Broadway worth the wait?
'It's all very nice, but with occasional exceptions courtesy of Goodman, none of it feels particularly necessary. Beckett labelled his play a tragicomedy. Ideally, Waiting for Godot should participate in both parts of that word; this production is neither as funny as it ought to be, nor as horrifying. It's pleasant to watch Irwin and Lane play their scenes, but never does one feel that one shares in their condition, that the play might function as a sort of metaphor for life, each of us waiting, wanting, existing without hope of reward. Oh well: it may provide gimmicky cocktails, but at least the theatre doesn't label the show, as did the play's original American producer Michael Myerberg, "the laugh hit of two continents".'
Alexis Soloski of The Guardian is somewhat unenthusiastic about the revival of Beckett's Waiting for Godot on Broadway. On the one hand, the New York production boasts the acting talents of Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin, and early signs suggest that it is John Goodman's bold and theatrical Pozzo that is winning everyone's attention. But aside from a fairly positive assessment of the lead performances, Soloski labels the show as little more than a 'beautifully lit' but disappointingly 'lukewarm revival'. You can read the article in full by clicking here.
