Ian McKellen has suggested that his current Broadway outing, a double bill of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Harold Pinter's No Man's Land with Patrick Stewart, could be his last appearance on the New York stage.

McKellen, 74, praised New York's theatre scene in an interview with Entertainment Weekly magazine last week, describing its audiences as "some of the brightest in the world, and certainly some of the most enthusiastic".

However, he continued: "I think this will be my last outing to Broadway, probably, so I might as well go out with a bang doing two plays in wonderful company."

To judge from reviews after the plays' official openings at the Cort theatre, it is mission accomplished. "I have never before heard American audiences respond to any production of Pinter or Beckett with such warm and embracing laughter," wrote Ben Brantley in the New York Times.

In the two plays, both of which suggest the ennui of existence, McKellen and Stewart, he asserted, "make a most persuasive case for conversation as both the liveliest and loneliest of arts".

ABC News described the pair as "theatre gods", arguing that the "two knights [are] at their peerless best" as both Beckett's bums, Vladimir and Estragon, and Pinter's poets, Spooner and Hirst. For the Hollywood Reporter, they made "a riveting duo".

Critic David Rooney continued: "The gravitas, penetrating intelligence and mercurial wit they bring to their performances in these contrasting yet strangely complementary works was to be expected given the two actors' breadth of experience. But it's the sense of rueful, wounded humanity that distinguishes them."

"Being stuck in limbo has never been so magnetic," declared the New York Daily News's Joe Dziemianowicz,. Brendan Lemon of the Finanical Times, however, was more critical: "As with many London theatrical exports arriving on these American shores, the routines now seem so worked-out they're stiff."

Like London's critics, Brantley in the New York Times noted that director Sean Mathias placed emphasis on Godot's humour at the expense of its "deep mortal chill", suggesting that the same applies to No Man's Land, which hasn't been seen in the UK. "Ideally," he wrote, "you should leave No Man's Land and Godot with a shiver as well as a smile." However, Brantley argued that "only the sourest theatregoers" will complain in this vein.

McKellen made his Broadway debut in 1967 opposite Judi Dench in The Promise, and has since performed in Wild Honey, Dance of Death and Amadeus in New York, winning a Tony for the latter. Stewart, meanwhile, has played Pinter on Broadway before, starring in a 2003 revival of The Caretaker. His other credits there include The Tempest and Macbeth.

The shows have seen a steady rise in audiences during previews, reaching 95.7% capacity the previous week and bringing in box-office takings of $635,850 (£392,600).