Irwin and Lane Are Waiting for Godot, Opening April 30

By Kenneth Jones
30 Apr 2009

Waiting for Godot stars Nathan Lane, John Goodman and Bill Irwin.
Waiting for Godot stars Nathan Lane, John Goodman and Bill Irwin.
Photo by Joan Marcus

Roundabout Theatre Company's new Broadway production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, the modern classic set in a wasteland, opens April 30 at Studio 54. Tony Award winners Bill Irwin, Nathan Lane and John Glover inhabit the world, as does John Goodman.

Previews began April 3. The title tells the tale: the human act of waiting is the central idea of the absurdist work, first performed in 1953. Helping to sweeten the experience, Irish writer Beckett (1906-1989) called for baggy-pants clowns to be the main characters on the play's arid landscape, where a barren tree stands along a country road.

Anthony Page (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) directs Tony winner Lane (The Producers) as Estragon and Tony winner Irwin (Fool Moon, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) as Vladimir, who have instructions to wait for a mysterious character named Godot.

Tony Award winner Glover (Love! Valour! Compassion!, "Smallville") plays Lucky, and Drama Desk nominee Goodman (Big River, "Roseanne") plays Pozzo, with Matthew Schechter as the Boy.

Waiting for Godot, according to Roundabout, "revolves around two seemingly homeless men waiting for someone — or something — named Godot. Vladimir (Bill Irwin) and Estragon (Nathan Lane) wait near a tree on a barren stretch of road, inhabiting a drama spun from their own consciousness. The result is a comical wordplay of poetry, dreamscapes and nonsense, which has been interpreted as a somber summation of mankind's inexhaustible search for meaning."

Beckett's plays include Happy Days, Krapp's Last Tape and Endgame, among others.

Studio 54 is located at 254 West 54th Street. This is a limited engagement.

The Godot creative team includes Santo Loquasto (sets), Jane Greenwood (costumes), Peter Kaczorowski (lights), Tom Watson (hair and wig design), Thomas Schall (fight director) and Dan Moses Schreier (sound).

Production stage manager is Peter Hanson. Jon Krause is stage manager.

The company also includes understudies John Ahlin (for Estragon, Pozzo), Cameron Clifford (for the Boy) and Anthony Newfield (for Lucky).

Tickets are available at www.roundabouttheatre.org, by phone at (212) 719-1300 or at the Studio 54 theatre box office (254 West 54th Street). Ticket prices range from $36.50-$116.50.

For more information visit roundabouttheatre.org.

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The new Broadway production of 9 to 5: The Musical is also scheduled to open April 30, a rare Broadway happening. Usually producers try to avoid a conflict in dates to help draw as much press coverage as possible. Read the recent Playbill.com Feature about this.

Both 9 to 5 and Godot are the final productions to open during the 2008-2009 theatre season.