Waiting for Godot is currently enjoying its fifth Broadway revival starring the starry duo of Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter. But while you may associate Samuel Beckett's play with existential dread, two hours of no plot, and bowler hats, did you know that when Godot first premiered in America (in Miami in 1956), audiences walked out after the first act?
At the time, Beckett's play (which had premiered in Paris in 1953 to rave reviews) was seen as thoroughly form-breaking for its portrayal of two men, Vladimir and Estragon, who spend their days waiting for the titular character who never comes. Instead, what does come are ruminations on the absurdity of existence, in response to a chaotic universe (Beckett wrote the play following World War II).
Miami audiences may not have been able to make much sense of Beckett's play where “nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful!” But that didn't stop producer Michael Myerberg from taking it to Broadway. Godot premiered on Broadway in 1956, with Bert Lahr (The Wizard of Oz's Cowardly Lion) and E. G. Marshall (12 Angry Men) leading the cast. Unlike in Florida, it was well-received by critics but it ended up only running for two months. A different production, featuring an all-Black cast, ran for just six performances in 1957.
Despite Godot not receiving a major Broadway revival until 2009 (in a cast led by Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin), Beckett's play grew in popularity as the tumultuous 20th century continued and audiences needed an answer for the social upheavals, presidential assassinations, and wars that were happening all around them. And if Godot didn't provide a clear answer, which wasn't the point according to Beckett, it did help personify people's feelings of dread and confusion.
In 2007, Wendell Pierce and J Kyle Manzey performed in a Godot in New Orleans, in the wake of the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. In 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ethan Hawke and John Leguizamo performed in a Zoom version of Godot, presented by the Off-Broadway company The New Group.
And over the years, Godot has had many celebrities who wanted to use Beckett to show off their theatrical bonafides. Robin Williams and Steve Martin led the cast of an Off-Broadway Waiting for Godot in 1988. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen did the show together twice, once in the West End in 2009 and then on Broadway in 2013; actually, McKellen has done Godot in five countries, doing it in London again in 2010 before going to Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa (opposite Roger Rees).
And now, as America is going through another tumultuous moment, perhaps it is fitting that Beckett's absurdist masterpiece is coming back to Broadway with another pair of well-known actors. After all, if you can't cry, laugh. Or in Beckett's words: "The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh. Let us not then speak ill of our generation, it is not any unhappier than its predecessors.”
Below, take a walk down Godot memory lane with the many actors, in New York and regionally, who have performed in the play.
Plus, celebrate the Broadway return of Waiting for Godot with Playbill's collection of Godot merch! From an "either I forget right away" notebook to a "well, shall we go" T-shirt, show off your favorite existential quotes as you go about your day waiting for your own Godot (who/whatever that may be).
E.G. Marshall and Bert Lahr in Waiting for Godot (original Broadway cast, 1956)
Robin Williams and Steve Martin in Waiting for Godot (Off-Broadway, Lincoln Center, 1988)
Wendell Pierce and J. Kyle Manzay in Waiting for Godot (New Orleans, 2007)
Bill Irwin and Nathan Lane in Waiting for Godot (Broadway, 2009)
Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in Waiting for Godot (Broadway, 2013)
Ethan Hawke and John Leguizamo in Waiting for Godot (Zoom, New Group, 2021)
Michael Shannon and Paul Sparks in Waiting For Godot (Off-Broadway 2023)
Aasif Mandvi and Rainn Wilson in Waiting for Godot (Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles, 2024)
Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves in Waiting For Godot (Broadway, 2025)
