Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot was a breakthrough play that introduced a new era in theatrical experimentation by using a simple situation to explore deep issues like the bleakness of life on earth. Santo Loquasto's set, for the current version now on Broadway, is an unbleak landscape; what should be a barren expanse stretching to infinity with one bare tree and a couple of rocks is filled with huge boulders - suggesting caverns behind them and possible hiding places -- undercutting the sense of the play.
There are two great clowns in the show, Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin, augmented by the immense, vivid John Goodman as the symbolic capitalist and a terrifically idiosyncratic John Glover as the symbolic worker enchanted by his chains. Lane is hilarious, with a sense of Commedia unsurpassed - totally immersed in the character, and believable both when "acting" and "performing." Irwin is best when "performing" -- doing clown shtick with Lane in act two, and their comic folderol alone is worth the price of admission.
Jane Greenwood's costumes are both appropriate and creative, and lighting designer Peter Kaczorowski's fast sundowns and fast sunrise work well.
Director Anthony Page's sense of timing makes the boredom of nothingness seem filled with (almost) excitement. I've see lots of Godots, and this one is probably the funniest of them all.
