NEED TO KNOW
- Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter spoke to Naomi Fry during a panel event at The New Yorker Festival on Oct. 26
- The real-life friends revealed how the “Broadway world” has reacted to their production, Waiting for Godot
- “It does have significance. It’s Broadway,” Winter said
Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are feeling the love!
During a panel event at The New Yorker Festival at SVA Theatre in New York on Sunday, Oct. 26, Reeves, 61, and Winter, 60, revealed how the theater community has reacted to the Matrix star taking a leap from movies into Broadway.
The pair, who are friends in real life, are starring in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot at the Hudson Theatre from Oct. 31 to Jan. 4. According to a synopsis, the production is about “two friends searching for meaning in an absurd world.”
Panel host Naomi Fry asked Winter if he gave Reeves any advice for his Broadway debut, having been in productions since his early teens.
“I kept saying, which he just kept laughing at me about, which deserved laughter, was it’s just a stage,” Winter recalled of Reeves. “It’s just another stage. I mean, Keanu had done Hamlet, back in the day [and] we were doing Bogus Journey. He was doing all this, you know, Shakespeare workshops, like he knows theater very well.”
Keanu Reeves on May 22, 2025.
Neil Mockford/WireImage
Winter said he reassured Reeves not to overthink performing on Broadway, and thankfully, others in the industry have been just as easy-going.
“Don’t let it zap your head. Like it’s an audience and it’s a stage,” Winter said. “It does have significance. It’s Broadway.
“They’ve been very warm to us. We came and did that Tony thing in June and everyone has been really lovely,” he continued, referring to them presenting an award at the Tony Awards.
Winter, who previously starred with Reeves in the Bill & Ted film franchise, said “there’s a specific Broadway world” with its own culture, but everyone has been “quite inviting” about Reeves’ debut in Waiting for Godot.
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Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves promoting ‘Waiting for Godot’ on Broadway.
Andy Henderson
“But, that’s not to say that we didn’t, you know, both quietly,” he added, trailing off, as Reeves chimed in, “What the f—”
“Exactly. Thank you. I didn’t want to do that, but I’m glad someone did,” Winter said.
Despite the pleasant welcome, Winter confessed they were both “panicking.”
“I looked up at him and I was like, ‘Oh, he’s similarly paralyzed,’” Winter said of Reeves. “That’s good.
“And then the thing that went up and we did the show and it was honestly one of my favorite shows we’ve done,” he concluded.
