NEED TO KNOW
Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter surprised fans on Halloween night during their Broadway run of Waiting for Godot
The longtime friends returned to the Hudson Theatre stage in just their underwear and drenched in fake blood after curtain call
The stunt playfully referenced director Jamie Lloyd’s recent productions like Sunset Blvd., which also ended with its leading man stripped down and bloodied
Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter had the Hudson Theatre howling on Halloween night.
The Bill & Ted stars — who are currently appearing together on Broadway in Jamie Lloyd’s acclaimed new production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot — surprised the audience after the Friday, Oct. 31-performance with an encore that was both spooky and side-splitting.
Following their usual curtain call, Reeves, 61, and Winter, 60, slipped backstage, only to return moments later wearing nothing but their underwear and dripping in fake blood.
The gory gag was a cheeky nod to Lloyd’s recent trend of ending his shows with his leading men nearly naked and slicked with stage blood.
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Andy Henderson
Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter after the ‘Waiting for Godot’ Halloween performance
Last year, Lloyd’s Tony-winning revival of Sunset Blvd. had audiences buzzing when star Tom Francis took his final bow in black boxer briefs, drenched in red fluid. And this summer, in Lloyd’s headline-making revival of Evita in London’s West End, leading man Diego Andres Rodriguez took his bows in his underwear covered in blue fluid.
Reeves and Winter clearly got the inside joke. Photographers captured the two stone-faced before they hyped up the crowd for the season’s annual fall fundraising “red bucket” campaign for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
Waiting for Godot began preview performances on Sept. 13, and officially opened on Sept. 28. The limited edition production is scheduled to close until Jan. 4, 2026.
The drama is widely considered to be one of the best plays of all time, exploring the themes of uncertainty, hope and the human condition. The story follows the two characters (Estragon, played by Reeves, and Vladimir, played by Winter) as they pass the time with conversation, encounters with strangers and moments of absurd humor and despair — all while they wait by a tree for someone named Godot, who never arrives
Andy Henderson
Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter after the ‘Waiting for Godot’ Halloween performance
Beckett first penned Godot in French in 1948-1949, the play making its world premiere in Paris in 1953. An English-language version came to London in 1955 and toured the United States that same year.
Its first Broadway production came to the John Golden Theatre in 1956 starring Bert Lahr and E. G. Marshall. The following year, it was revived at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in a production led by Earle Hyman and Mantan Moreland.
Other revivals have come in 2009, with Bill Irwin and Nathan Lane, and in 2013, with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.
Joining Reeves and Winter for this revival is Brandon J. Dirden (as Pozzo), Michael Patrick Thornton (as Lucky), Zaynn Arora (as Boy) and Eric Williams (as Boy). Jesse Aaronson and Franklin Bongjio are understudies.
Andy Henderson
Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter in Broadway’s ‘Waiting for Godot’
This marks Reeves’ Broadway debut, and a return to the boards for Winter for the first time since 1979.
Both have been friends since first working together over 35 years ago in the 1989 sci-fi comedy Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. They reprised their roles as Bill Preston (Winter) and Ted Logan (Reeves) for a second and third installment of the cult-classic series in 1991 and 2020.
Asked by PEOPLE on the Broadway revival’s red carpet how they’ve changed over the years, Winter said, “I’m happy to say, not much.” Reeves, according to the Winter, is “maybe a little wiser, maybe a little bit more relaxed, and more sort of at ease with the world.”
“We were young and finding our way,” Winter shared, looking back on their friendship. “Those edges start to smooth out a little bit.”
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