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A mix of high comedy and irrepressible tragedy weaves through Samuel Beckett's landmark play Waiting for Godot. In the play, two tramps may wait endlessly on a barren plain for a character who never arrives, but as they do, their banter and physical hi-jinks call to mind a range of comedians from the early part of the twentieth century. At the same time, these characters' plights are painfully emblematic of a futility in man's day-to-day existence.

In director Anthony Page's revival of "Godot" that opened last night at the Roundabout Theatre Company's Studio 54, the comedy of Beckett's play shines through. How could it not? The cast is led by Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin, who play the tramps Estragon (Gogo) and Vladimir (Didi) respectively, and they're joined by John Goodman, who plays Pozzo, a vicious, pompous and seemingly well-to-do man who crosses the plain (more of a rocky vale in Santo Loquasto's scenic design), with his cruelly maltreated servant, ironically named Lucky (John Glover).

The play allows audiences to witness two days in Didi and Gogo's lives in which the events are strangely, and sadly, similar. They meet after having spent an evening sleeping in separate places; Gogo bloodied from a beating that he received overnight. They attempt to pass the time by confirming they're in the right spot, and by attempting to come up with diversions for themselves. At one point, Gogo suggests, for instance, that they could hang themselves from the leafless tree that's amid the boulders and sand. Such is the gallows humor of "Godot."

Their reprieve from the monotony of their routine comes when the other two men arrive on the scene, but when they come during the second act, one even questions if they are not just another aspect of Didi and Gogo's seemingly eternal waiting game. It's cutting stuff, but the mixture of comedy and pathos is served up perfectly by Irwin, a champion interpreter of Beckett's plays. With an arch of an eyebrow, or a quick shift in his vocal tone, Irwin glides with precision through the play's often contradictory passages, communicating Didi's awareness of the futility of it all and thus, finding the heartbreaking core of the role and piece.

Lane, who only occasionally reverts to what might be considered his standard-issue comic shenanigans, makes for a warm, loveable Gogo. At times, even with the blood that has dried to his face, he resembles nothing more that one of the classic "sad-face" clowns that one might associate with circuses from an era gone by. But despite a simmering fury in his performance that occasionally bubbles over, Lane's Gogo never quite inspires the same sort of empathy as Irwin's Didi.

Goodman, whom costume designer Jane Greenwood dresses in an almost ludicrously bright riding outfit, makes a wonderful mockery of Pozzo's self-importance during the first act of "Godot." Later, when Pozzo, now blind, stumbles and falls into Didi and Gogo's company, Goodman's use of his hefty frame to right himself may be one of the most hysterical sights on Broadway today, and despite efforts to reveal that sadistic malevolence that drives Pozzo, Goodman's portrayal remains primarily a comic one.

It falls to Glover to deliver what might be one of the most difficult stretches of "Godot," an epic stream-of-consciousness monologue that often can simply feel like pointless ravings. In Glover's capable hands, however, this centerpiece of the first act becomes a sort of verbal volcano in which language has ceased to function, but in which abject panic, fear and utter helplessness are chillingly palpable. Ultimately, as his rantings become too much for the other men, they attempt to subdue him, and it's in this sequence, in which Lane mimes a sort of exorcism and in which Irwin executes some deft physical comedy, that the precise balance of the two tones of "Godot" is achieved.

It's a tremendously rewarding, and perhaps the most powerful, moment in this highly entertaining, but never fully satisfying "Godot."

---- Andy Propst

Waiting for Godot plays at Studio 54 (254 West 54th Street). Performances are Tuesday through Saturday evening at 8pm; with matinees Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 2pm. Tickets are $36.50 - $116.50 and can be purchased by calling 212-719-1300 or by visiting www.RoundaboutTheatre.org.