I caught one of the last seats at the last matinee of Waiting for Godot at the Geffen Theater. I was in the back row of the balcony, and although it’s a smallish theater unfortunately I couldn’t see the expressions, and that was a loss. Fortunately no one was sitting in front of me so yay for that.
It was a fantastic version of such a renowned work, all the words just the same, but somehow deeply funny. Many times the whole audience just laughed out loud. A common interpretation is “Through its absurdist and nihilistic tone, Waiting for Godot prompts audiences to question the meaning of life and their own existence” which seems a trick to make it so funny. Rainn Wilson and Aasif Mandvi starred, and they were perfect. I’m thinking a lot of the credit would go to the director Judy Hegarty Lovett. If you know the play, you know the set – a twiggy bare tree, a rock to crouch on, and that’s it.
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On Thursday Lilly and I went to see Wicked and wow, the extravagance of the staging was totally eye-poppingly remarkable and it was relentless with the songs and sound effects and action. SO different, I’m glad I saw them both.
