Andy Henderson

Seriously, using a childhood favorite to throw existential dread into the increasingly lined faces of Gen-Xers isn't a bad idea. At times, it's even brilliant. By respectively casting the now 60-something Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves as Beckett's tragicomic vagabonds Vladimir (née Bill) and Estragon (née Ted), Lloyd creates an often giddily effective cross-decade continuum between highbrow and popular entertainment, which likely would have pleased the Irish playwright's vaudevillian sensibilities. Unfortunately, aside from all the usual Beckettian stuff about the futility of life, the real downer with this new production of Waiting for Godot is that Lloyd can't stop inserting himself into it, as if he's weirdly competing with Beckett for storytelling supremacy. Needless to note, that's a losing proposition. [more]