(AKA, “Didi and Gogo’s Bogus Journey”, AKA “Dude, Where’s Godot?”)
On September 27th, the final night of Broadway previews, I witnessed Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter bringing their legendary decades-spanning bromance to Waiting for Godot. I had no clue what to expect from the play itself, except that I recalled hearing about Sir Ian McKellan and Sir Patrick Stewart starring in the same roles on Broadway about 10 years ago – before I was making enough money to splurge on all the theatre we’ve been taking in lately.
I had some assumptions based on what I read back then, and knew nothing else about the play. I assumed it would just be 2 old men participating in some form of hijinks while waiting for a friend.
And boy… I was wrong.
Waiting for Godot turned out to be a surreal, David Lynch-ian rumination about life, death, the afterlife, and… may have taken place in Purgatory? (Although according to the playwright, that’s too pedestrian of an interpretation) Or maybe even the “abyss”? (As in “if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you”)
Weighty topics for this spiritual sequel to the Bill and Ted trilogy, even as Bogus Journey did partially take place in the afterlife. And I’m not the only one who interprets it that way – Reeves and Winter themselves inject a few Bill and Ted references into the play for the audience and have called it “Bill and Ted on steroids”. Though I would argue, a more psychotropic substance than steroids would be more fitting.
Can I just say that I was seriously impressed by Alex Winter’s acting chops? Where has he been since he played Bill S. Preston, Esq and why isn’t he acting in more things??? Keanu was Keanu as always, which I love for him. But I especially love when he gets the opportunity to really flex his comedic skills, which tends to be rarer after he’s made such a name for himself as a broody action hero.
It was a pretty pricey show, as a lot of these stunt cast-ed shows tend to be. But this was worth the introduction to Samuel Beckett’s writing, which gave us a lot to chew on. In fact – when we got home, we started looking up past interpretations of Waiting for Godot to compare and contrast, as well. And it was an absolute joy to see these lifelong friends and their easy chemistry play it out on stage together.
Now I’m just waiting for David Tennant & Michael Sheen to give us Waiting for Good Omens…
Waiting for Godot with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter
on Broadway through Jan 4, 2026 at Hudson Theatre
