city sidewalks

Newly gracing the stage of landmark Studio 54 comes Roundabout Theatre’s revival of Samuel Beckett’s bleak masterpiece, Waiting for Godot. Packed with a powerhouse cast (presumably to provoke lagging ticket sales across the board) starring Nathan Lane as Estragon, Bill Irwin as sidekick Vladimir, the enormous and bawdy John Goodman as Pozzo and the remarkable John Glover as his mute slave, aptly named Lucky.

The show revolves around two seemingly homeless men waiting for someone – or something – named Godot on a barren stretch of road. A comedic wordplay of poetry, dreamscapes and nonsense, this production sidesteps the all-too-easy banality of minimalist plays and delivers a show that lives up to its intent – a somber summation of mankind’s grueling quest for meaning. 

Conjuring haggard images of Laurel and Hardy, Lane & Irwin personify the desperate absurdity of their situation with long pauses and heavy sighs, but packing enough laughs to keep you from checking your watch every ten minutes, which is no easy feat for such a bleak storyline. As Elaine Stritch was quoted saying in New York Magazine, “if that play isn’t funny, it’s one long fucking night in the theater.”