WAITING FOR GODOT Reviews- Page 2

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 4/30/09 at 9:48pm

Ticket sales and capacity has been wonderful thus far. I think they're going to do quite well.

[chrisampm2]

Posted: 4/30/09 at 9:50pm

Yo, WickedRocks, yes, you've "said it a thousand times. GODOT is certainly a show that requires its fans to have an acquired taste." I say, "Liar." I loved it the first time I saw it. As I've written, I was with an audience aged ~10 to ~70 and it was a commercial, laugh riot. I'm sure some parts went over some people's heads. Some parts may have seemed too slapsticky for the ones who got the "absurdism." It was so exciting to see a show that worked on so many levels. It certainly did not require advance research or a degree in existentialism. It may not be to your taste. It may not be to others' taste. But that does not make it an "acquired" taste. I'm not saying you're stupid for not appreciating this production. I just think you're misguided in defending your opinion by trying to put the play and its admirers in a rarified box.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 4/30/09 at 10:02pm

Doesn't matter if they "do well". They're run by Roundabout, which assures them a full run. Roundabout shows always have high attendance because of subscribers.

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/30/09 at 10:12pm

Theatermania is Negative

No matter how magnificent a play may be, it always reveals discernible influences. Take Samuel Beckett's 1954 classic, Waiting for Godot, now being given a disappointing revival at the Roundabout Theatre Company's Studio 54 under the direction of Anthony Page. For example, with its forlorn protagonists Vladimir and Estragon (Bill Irwin and Nathan Lane) clinging to one another at the same time as they try each other's frayed patience, loud echoes can be heard of Shakespeare's King Lear when the self-deposed monarch and blinded adviser Gloucester meet on the heath.

http://www.theatermania.com/broadway/reviews/05-2009/waiting-for-godot_18808.html

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 4/30/09 at 10:16pm

The New York Times [with Ben Brantley] is Very Positive (although he doesn't think Bill Irwin and Nathan Lane have constant chemistry):

"But more pertinently, this Estragon and Vladimir don?t feel like a real couple except in their moments of synchronized vaudeville. I was glad to have contrasting actors up there. (Two of either would have been too much.) But I only rarely felt the poignancy of these longtime fellow travelers? interdependence.

I should note that Mr. Lane and Mr. Irwin are never more convincingly allied, like people bonding in an earthquake, than when Mr. Goodman is onstage. As well they should be. Mr. Goodman?s blusteringly genteel Pozzo explodes with the nonsensical tyranny of the autocrats in Lewis Carroll?s ?Alice? books. In his relationship with Mr. Glover?s superb Lucky, who suggests a broken-down horse trying to avoid the glue factory, his Pozzo embodies centuries of aristocratic entitlement and subjugation. (This is a performance that any student of class systems needs to see.) But Mr. Goodman lets us glimpse the tickling uncertainty within the stolidness. He is human, after all, which means his very foundation is doubt.

?I?ve been better entertained,? says Vladimir dismissively, when asked his opinion of one of Pozzo?s perorations. But if, as this play contends, all life is nothing but passing time that would have passed anyway, I can think of few more invigorating ways of both doing and acknowledging exactly that."

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/theater/reviews/01godo.html?pagewanted=2

[James2]

Posted: 4/30/09 at 10:17pm

Entertainment Weekly gives it a B+

"The arrival of Samuel Beckett's existentialist classic Waiting for Godot caps a Broadway season marked by a surprising deluge of unlikely revivals on the Great White Way: August Wilson, Anton Chekhov, Eugene Ionesco, George W. Bush.

The biggest shock in this faithful and well-executed production may be just how under-the-top it is, given the casting of inveterate ham Nathan Lane and former circus clown Bill Irwin as Estragon and Vladimir, the two philosophizing tramps passing the time in a barren landscape in anticipation of the promised arrival of one Godot (here pronounced, as Beckett himself preferred, 'GOD-oh,' to better underscore the religious subtext). Yes, the two employ all the resources of vaudeville and slapstick at various points in the show ? the second act hat shuffle is particularly adept, as is Lane's fumbling demonstration with a bullwhip ? but the actors' comic business never becomes antic or overwhelms the show's underlying seriousness of purpose. It's a more restrained approach to the material that stands in sharp contrast to the current Broadway run of Ionesco's Exit the King, which seems to set the performance dial at 11, Spinal Tap-style."

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20275820,00.html

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 4/30/09 at 10:39pm

The Wall Street Journal is a Rave:

"Among the virtues of this "Godot" is the way in which it brings out the best that each member of the cast has in him. This is especially welcome in the case of Mr. Lane, who has been coasting ever since "The Producers." No more. As Estragon, the tramp with sore feet who was first played in this country by Bert Lahr, the Cowardly Lion of "The Wizard of Oz," Mr. Lane has renewed himself: His acting in "Godot" is fresh and unforced. Instead of going for the laughs, he simply lets them happen -- and they do, in blessed abundance.

As for Mr. Irwin's Vladimir, all I can say is that I had no idea that this great clown was also a great actor. His flat, flip performance in Mr. Page's 2005 Broadway revival of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" gave no indication that he was capable of anything like the devastatingly understated pathos with which he delivers the climactic speech in which Beckett tells those with ears to hear what "Waiting for Godot" is all about: "We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. But habit is a great deadener. At me too someone is looking, of me too someone is saying, He is sleeping, he knows nothing, let him sleep on.""

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124113336651175051.html

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/30/09 at 10:41pm

Updated On: 4/30/09 at 10:41 PM

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/30/09 at 10:43pm

Uhh, I had posted that one.

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 4/30/09 at 10:52pm

So happy to see the great reviews! I really enjoyed this production.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 4/30/09 at 10:55pm

John Simon is Mixed-to-Positive:

"As Gogo, Lane goes through his customary repertoire of facial, vocal and somatic tricks, which fit in with surprising felicity, conveying much sad-clown hilarity. John Goodman is properly despotic and oily as Pozzo, particularly good when, unable to rise, he wallows on the ground like a beached whale.

Lucky?s part of silent masochistic servility does not allow an actor much leeway, but John Glover accredits himself valiantly, especially in Lucky?s one outburst into a long nonsense monologue, a parody of prevailing French philosophy.

My problem is with the Didi of Bill Irwin. An accomplished mime, he does well by the pantomimic aspects of this (or any) role. But here, as in other speaking parts, Irwin?s voice is too mundane and his personality colorless.

Santo Loquasto?s rocks are better than the ones currently featured in ?Desire Under the Elms?; Jane Greenwood?s costumes are, except for the suitably gaudy Pozzo, as whimsically shabby as called for; and Peter Kaczorowski?s lighting is as ruthlessly illuminating as Page?s probing direction. All in all, a worthy production, yet leaving us waiting for the ideal ?Godot.?"

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601098&sid=aGLATMJ8rNfc&refer=movie

[Sauja]

Posted: 4/30/09 at 11:23pm

Piragua, it does matter (in a less direct way) if the show does well. Strong critical reception and a solid sell-through beyond the subscriber base could encourage the Roundabout to put more effort into strong productions of great work rather than misguided attempts at crowd pleasing--The Ritz, anyone? The Philanthropist? And dear god, do we really need Sienna Miller's Broadway debut?

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 4/30/09 at 11:31pm

Glad to see mainly RAVES

[Calvin]

Posted: 5/1/09 at 12:29am

Brantley calls it Goodman's Broadway debut.

Oops.

[willep]

Posted: 5/1/09 at 12:30am

Yeah, I noticed that too, Calvin...weird...

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 5/1/09 at 11:07am

The New York Post is Positive with *** out of ****:

"'NOTHING happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful!"

It's not a very eventful day for Estragon, half of the couple at the heart of "Waiting for Godot." Actually, all his days are like that, and so is the play -- minus the "awful" bit.

It's pretty amazing that such a piece would become a classic -- can you imagine Samuel Beckett pitching his concept at a Broadway investors' meeting today? Yet the author's 1953 masterpiece is hypnotically entrancing, and this particular production, directed by Anthony Page, ain't too shabby, either.

..."

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05012009/entertainment/theater/gogo_to_see_this_much_ado_about_nothing_167036.htm

[little_sally]

Posted: 5/1/09 at 11:44am

I'm actually quite happy with the reviews.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 5/1/09 at 3:10pm

The New York Daily News is very positive with **** out of *****:
"...Director Anthony Page has put Tony winners and first-class comic actors Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin at center stage in his sterling revival.

This two-man dream team is wonderfully crabby and cozy together, exactly right for a couple who've spent ages together waiting and waiting and waiting for the mysterious no-show Godot.

The actors' skills as vaudevillians come in handy for pratfalls and other bits of physical comedy, such as when they rapidly trade bowler hats.
But they're more than clowns. They capture the sadness and poetry in the playwright's language, which, like life, roams from disconnected to abusive to highly amusing.
..."

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/arts/2009/05/01/2009-05-01_waiting_for_godot_well_worth_the_wait.html

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 5/1/09 at 3:14pm

Well-deserved reviews!

[willep]

Posted: 5/1/09 at 3:39pm

Haven't watched it yet, but word of mouth is FINALLY up!

http://www.broadway.com/Waiting-for-Godot/broadway_reviews/5026509

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 5/1/09 at 3:44pm

HAHAHAAH Joe said that if you had the opportunity to "get donkey-kicked in the chest" and "get route canal" you should do it instead of see GODOT.

Helen and Mary liked it enough. Helen is a freaking idiot...she says to see it and she liked it but "she didn't understand what was going on."
Updated On: 5/1/09 at 03:44 PM

[willep]

Posted: 5/1/09 at 5:08pm

hahaha Joe is hysterical, I love the pizza analogy. Hele is quite the idiot... "I couldn't tell what the heck was going on...but I could tell it was great acting!"

"i couldn't tell what the heck it meant...but it's brilliant writing!"

hahaha

[Kad]

Posted: 5/1/09 at 5:26pm

So what she is really saying is, "I was taught in school that it's good, so I'm going to say it is!"

[willep]

Posted: 5/1/09 at 6:11pm

pretty much :-P