Bert Lahr
Estragon Attendant

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Everyone knows that Bert Lahr played the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. But fewer people know he took one of the main roles in the first Broadway production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. This was in 1956.

Of course, there's only five characters in the play and you can consider four to be major characters (the fifth character is a young boy who appears only at the end of each act). But the first characters on stage are Vladimir and Estragon. In the Broadway production, E. G. Marshall played Vladimir ("Didi") and Bert played Estragon ("Gogo"). These, if you have to pick, are the main characters.

Waiting for Godot can be an excellent play or a terrible one. If the actors play it easy and lacksidaislcally it stinks. But if it's played with vigah (to quote an American President), it can be very good.

The two other main characters are Pozzo and Lucky. Lucky is the slave of Pozzo and the pair appear about halfway through each act. Lucky only speaks once and that's in the first act after Pozzo orders him to "think" for the entertainment of Didi and Gogo. Although the part is only a 733 word monologue (758 in the original French), it's still one of the most difficult parts to learn in any play as it makes absolutely no sense. The actor in the Broadway production - the highly prolific Alvin Epstein - delivered his lines at high speed and with ever increasing mania. But in the first production in France in 1953, the actor hired to play Lucky was unable to learn the part. The producer Roger Blin (who also played Pozzo) had to scramble to find a substitute. He was finally able to hire the veteran actor Jean Martin. Godot, of course, requires no actor as he never shows up.

Everyone wonders what the play is about. Once the publisher Bennett Cerf ask Bert if he understood it.

"Did you?" asked Bert. Bennett replied he didn't.

"Then we're even," Bert said.

The first Broadway production was not a success and closed in less than three months. On some nights half the audience might leave before the end. And yet it is one of the better stagings and a recording of this production is available for all those who are interested.

Oh, yes. The actual pronunciation is "GOH-doh", not - as typically rendered in America "goh-DOH".

References

Notes on a Cowardly Lion: The Biography of Bert Lahr, John Lahr, Knopf, 1969.

En Attendant Godot, Samuel Beckett, Les Editions de Minuit, 1952.

Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett, Grove, 1954.

Waiting for Godot, Bert Lahr (actor), E.G. Marshall (actor), Kurt Kasznar (actor), Alvin Epstein (actor), Luchino Solito De Solis (actor), Samuel Beckett (author), Michael Myerberg (producer), Herbert Berghof (director), John Golden Theatre, 1956, Internet Broadway Data Base

Waiting for Godot, Bert Lahr (actor), E.G. Marshall (actor), Kurt Kasznar (actor), Alvin Epstein (actor), Luchino Solito De Solis (actor), Caedmon Records, 1956.

Samuel Beckett: A Biography, Deirdre Bair, Simon and Schuster, 1990.

What's My Line, John Daly (host), Bennett Cerf (panelist), Arlene Francis (panelist), Dorothy Kilgallen (panelist), Stubby Kaye (guest panelist), Bert Lahr (mystery guest), Broadcast Date: December 30, 1956.