How Wild Will Jamie Lloyd’s Waiting for Godot Be? Keanu Reeves Says, ‘Buckle Up!’

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter begin performances in Broadway's Waiting for Godot on September 13, playing two down-on-their-luck friends whiling away the hours on a country road. At the helm is Jamie Lloyd, the director whose Sunset Boulevard won three Tonys with a production that combined star power, real-time video and minimalist design to ravishing effect. 

So what happens when Lloyd takes on Samuel Beckett's bleak tragicomedy about two men standing around and waiting? Reeves and Winter hint it's not what you think.

“This is a new way into the play,” said Winter in a recent conversation with Broadway.com.

Reeves added, “When the lights come up, it's buckle up… I don't want to say too much... I don't want to raise the expectation, but—"

Winter cut in, “They know it’s Jamie. So there’s an expectation.”

Reeves agreed: “We’re doing a Jamie Lloyd show.” 

That's no small claim, given Beckett's famously strict estate. Contracts forbid changes to the text or stage directions, ban music or special effects without consent and even mandate bowler hats. Women remain barred from the lead roles.

Yet, as Broadway.com noted when the project was first announced, if anyone could push those boundaries, it's Lloyd. According to Reeves, the team has been in "really great collaboration" with the estate, while Winter added, “They've been pretty fluid.” 

Lloyd himself told Broadway.com they're “more collaborative” than their reputation suggests, noting that as long as the script is honored, there's flexibility in aesthetic choices. “You have to just abide by what's written on the page," he said.

So will Lloyd give us giant screens, live video, actors covered in glistening liquid? A promenade outside the theater? With Lloyd, almost anything is possible.

We’ll just have to wait and see.