Waiting For Credibility

The most bizarre Broadway theatre news in ages arrived the other day when I read that Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, original stars of slacker comedy Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure , are to take on the Samuel Beckett classic Waiting For Godot. I honestly thought that this was a parody, like that time Chris Morris in “serious newsreader voice” announced that a five pound note “with the head of Iggy Pop” would be coming into circulation in the UK. If only…

I’m really not sure about this casting choice, but that’s Broadway for you. Reeves, by his own admission, is a better comic turn than serious. No shit, Sherlock. What next, Justin Bieber in Krapp’s Last Tape? Gamma Collins takes on the entire back catalogue of Sarah Kane?Katie Price in Happy Days?

I’m being facetious, but I’m ambivalent about the outcome. The Beckett Estate likes to keep his work pure. As long as they don’t go off-book and understand the script ‘s gallows humour and pathos, it could work. Beckett was the first playwright whose work really chimed with me. He understood the human condition and interrogated life’s banana skins and potholes with clarity, sensitivity and heart. And Danny Dyer cut his acting teeth with Harold Pinter, so stranger things have happened. If Reeves and Winter can get a whole new generation into Beckett, excellent.