Roundabout's WAITING FOR GODOT to Start Previews 1 Week Early on April 3

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) presents (in order of speaking) Nathan Lane (Estragon), Bill Irwin (Vladimir), John Goodman (Pozzo), David Strathairn (Lucky) and in a new Broadway production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett and directed by Tony® award winner Anthony Page.

Waiting for Godot will now begin previews one week earlier on Friday, April 3rd, 2009 and open officially on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at Studio 54 on Broadway (254 West 54th Street). This will be a limited engagement.

The cast will also include Matthew Schechter (Boy). The design team includes Santo Loquasto (Sets), Jane Greenwood (Costumes) and Peter Kaczorowski (Lights).

Waiting for Godot remains Samuel Beckett's most magical and beautiful allegory. The story revolves around two seemingly homeless men waiting for someone - or something - named Godot. Vladimir (Bill Irwin) and Estragon (Nathan Lane) wait near a tree on a barren stretch of road, inhabiting a drama spun from their own consciousness. The result is a comical wordplay of poetry, dreamscapes and nonsense, which has been interpreted as a somber summation of mankind's inexhaustible search for meaning.

A cornerstone of twentieth century theatre, Waiting for Godot was Samuel Beckett's first professionally produced play. It premiered in Paris in 1953 and premiered on Broadway in 1956 at the John Golden Theatre. Beckett's language pioneered an expressionistic minimalism that captured the existentialism of post-World War II Europe.

TICKET INFORMATION:
Tickets will be available exclusively on January 21st - February 5th to American Express Card members online at www.roundabouttheatre.org, by phone at (212) 719-1300, or at the Studio 54 theatre box office (254 West 54th Street). Ticket prices range from $36.50 to $116.50.

Public on-sale begins Friday, February 6th by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212)719-1300, online at www.roundabouttheatre.org or at the Studio 54 theatre box office (254 West 54th Street). Through ACCESS Roundabout, 100 tickets will be available for the first preview performance (April 3rd) for only $10 each.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
Waiting for Godot will play Tuesday through Saturday evening at 8:00 p.m. with Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m.

ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY is one of the country's leading not-for-profit theatres. The company contributes invaluably to New York's cultural life by staging the highest quality revivals of classic plays and musicals as well as new plays by established writers. Roundabout consistently partners great artists with great works to bring a fresh and exciting interpretation that makes each production relevant and important to today's audiences.

Roundabout Theatre Company currently produces at three permanent homes each of which is designed specifically to enhance the needs of the Roundabout's mission. Off-Broadway, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, which houses the Laura Pels Theatre and Black Box Theatre, with its simple sophisticated design is perfectly suited to showcasing new plays. The grandeur of its Broadway home on 42nd Street, American Airlines Theatre, sets the ideal stage for the classics. Roundabout's Studio 54 provides an exciting and intimate Broadway venue for its musical and special event productions. Together these three distinctive venues serve to enhance the work on each of its stages.

Lead support for Roundabout's new play fund generously provided by: The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and The Laura Pels Foundation.

American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company. Roundabout productions are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts; and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. American Express is the 2008-2009 season sponsor of the Roundabout Theatre Company.

Roundabout Theatre Company's 2008-2009 season also includes Rodgers & Hart's Pal Joey, starring Stockard Channing, Matthew Risch & Martha Plimpton, directed by Joe Mantello; Lisa Loomer's Distracted featuring Cynthia Nixon, directed by Mark Brokaw; Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, starring Mary-Louise Parker, Michael Cerveris, Paul Sparks and Peter Stormare, directed by Ian Rickson and Christopher Hampton's The Philanthropist, starring Matthew Broderick, directed by David Grindley. Roundabout's sold out production of The 39 Steps is making its second Broadway transfer to the Helen Hayes Theatre on January 21, 2009.

www.roundabouttheatre.org

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.