Ragtime , directed by Lear DeBessonet, Vivian Beaumont Theater. Photo: Matthew Murphy The Terrence McNally/Stephen Flaherty/Lynn Ahrens musical Ragtime  is not the subtlest theater contraption. Premiered on Broadway in 1998, it’s a big, galumphing machine with very big things to say about America; multiple, interwoven storylines; whimsical interactions of fictional and historical characters; and a 30+ member ensemble. I remember thinking back in 1998 that it was a miracle thi

Keanu Reeves (Estragon) and Alex Winter (Vladimir) in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot , directed by Jamie Lloyd. Photo: Andy Henderson Absurd as it may seem, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot , a demanding play about existential despair and cosmic futility first performed in 1953, has just opened on Broadway for the fifth time. Godot  is the sole Beckett work that Broadway’s glitz-and-glamor-merchants have ever bet big money on, and three of those bets have occurred in th

Will Harrison (center) with (l to r) Lucy Taylor, Piter Marek, Jacob Orr, Cody Kostro, Kim Fischer, Camila Cano-Flavia in Manhattan...