I felt the opposite, reading it was a waste of time, but watching it performed was another thing entirely, and was actually enjoyable even for anti "Literature" and "Arts" me. Even if that performance was recorded on celluloid (This was way before VHS and DVDs).
Will I demand my children read it? Absolutely.
Better that they watch it first, with written copy available for examination afterwords. The Barb did after all write it to be performed, to a contemporary audience, who would pay to see it. He had to eat, and there was no National Endowment for the Arts, although one could sometimes get some Royal to pony up a little up front money.
They work just fine on the page. There are things you would never hear in a performance that come across in print.