Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter Strip Down to Their Underwear on Broadway for a Hilarious Halloween Callback

NEED TO KNOW

• Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter surprised fans on Halloween night during their Broadway run. Waiting for Godot

• The longtime friends returned to the Hudson Theater stage in their underwear and drenched in fake blood after the encore.

• The stunt playfully referenced director Jamie Lloyd’s recent productions like Sunset Blvd.which also ended with its leading man stripped naked and bloody

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter » the Hudson Theater roared on Halloween night.

THE Bill and Ted stars – who are currently appearing together on Broadway in Jamie Lloyd’s acclaimed new production of Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot – surprised the audience after the performance on Friday, October 31 with an encore that was both chilling and heartbreaking.

After their usual encore, Reeves, 61, and Winter, 60, slipped backstage, only to return moments later, clad only in their underwear and dripping in fake blood.

The bloody gag was a cheeky nod to Lloyd’s recent trend of ending his shows with his leading men nearly naked and smeared in stage blood.

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Last year’s Tony-winning revival of Lloyd’s Sunset Boulevard. thrilled the audience when star Tom Francis bowed out in black boxers, soaked in red liquid. And this summer, in the headline-grabbing recovery of Lloyd’s Evita In London’s West End, lead actor Diego Andres Rodriguez bowed out in underwear covered in blue liquid.

Reeves and Winter clearly got the joke. Photographers captured the two stone faces before getting the crowd excited for the annual fall “red bucket” fundraising campaign for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Waiting for Godot began previews on September 13 and officially opened on September 28. Limited edition production is expected to run until January 4, 2026.

The drama is widely considered one of the best plays of all time, exploring themes of uncertainty, hope and the human condition. The story follows the two characters (Estragon, played by Reeves, and Vladimir, played by Winter) as they pass the time with conversations, encounters with strangers, and moments of absurd humor and despair – all while waiting by a tree for someone named Godot, who never arrives.

Beckett first wrote Godot in French in 1948-1949, the play premiered in Paris in 1953. An English-language version arrived in London in 1955 and toured the United States the same year.

Its first Broadway production was at the John Golden Theater in 1956 with Bert Lahr and EG Marshall. The following year it was revived at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in a production directed by Earle Hyman and Mantan Moreland.

Further revivals took place in 2009, with Bill Irwin and Nathan Lane, and in 2013, with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.

Joining Reeves and Winter for this revival are Brandon J. Dirden (as Pozzo), Michael Patrick Thornton (as Lucky), Zaynn Arora (as The Boy), and Eric Williams (as The Boy). Jesse Aaronson and Franklin Bongjio are understudies.

This marks Reeves’ Broadway debut and a return to the stage for Winter for the first time since 1979.

The two have been friends since they first worked together more than 35 years ago in the 1989 sci-fi comedy. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. They reprized their roles as Bill Preston (Winter) and Ted Logan (Reeves) for a second and third installment of the cult classic series in 1991 and 2020.

Asked by PEOPLE on the red carpet for the Broadway revival how they’ve changed over the years, Winter replied, “I’m happy to say, not much.” Reeves, according to Winter, is “maybe a little wiser, maybe a little more relaxed and more comfortable with the world.”

“We were young and finding our way,” Winter shared, reflecting on their friendship. “Those edges are starting to soften a little bit.”

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