Death of A Salesman.

I have probably seen "Death of a Salesman" as much as any play on Broadway; from the great acting by Brian Dennehy, to the deep emotion of Philp Seymour Hoffman. The current "Death" at the Winter Garden Theatre is certainly better than the one I saw back in 2022, but this one too is not great. Still in previews the show never hits the emotion that it should. Nathan Lane who is a great comedic actor never pulls at our emotions the way Dennehy did. Director Joe Mantello who is coming off with Laurie Metcalf a great directorial job with "Little Bear Ridge Road, misses the mark here with both the pace and the emotional involvement. The play is never consistent throughout the three hours.

As the play begins, Willy Loman (Nathan Lane) drives onto the set, the set itself reminded me of a mechanics garage, open with columns. It never looks warm or even like a home. We never go back into the period in which Miller wrote this legendary play. The modern theater lover may very well like the ingenuity of this set, but it never captures the heart of Miller's ( An American Clock, All My Sons) writing.

The costumes by Rudy Mance vary from traditional(Lane and Metcalf's) to the modern (older Biff and older Happy's). Mance does well in straddling both styles. The lighting wavered and hit the characters to hard making it difficult to see the actors straight on. It gave to much of a halo effect especially on Lane.

The casting of this classic was a big problem here as well. Biff (Christopher Abbott) and Happy (Ben Ahlers) looked to thuggish.Whereas the younger Biff (Joaquin Consuelos) and Young Happy (Jake Termine) were better casted, more standard to the original Miller play. The older children never have a good blend on stage, I never felt like they bonded as brothers. Laurie Metcalf too had little emotion in her role. Metcalf who is normally superb onstage gives us a variety of emotion and turns it up when Willy is declining and getting no support from their good for nothing children. Like the 2022 version of this play, the modern tweaks never fulfill us. This play is deep and needs to be performed with a high emotional level. Joe Mantello nor the cast ever takes us to that level, we never truly feel sorry for Willy, the human being who was always delusional about his talents, his sons talent; especially Biff's. In 2022 Wendel Pierce and cast did the same thing that this version of "Death" did, it searched for a personality that never found itself.

It seems that the last two versions of "Death of a Salesman" in the last four years were more of an experimental piece. Both were done in the modern, the all black cast in 2022 that lasted only four months on Broadway, less so; but still modern of note. Neither of these two plays had strong emotion; neither lacked depth as well.

If "Death of a Salesman" is ever to come back to Broadway, it needs to have the chops like it did in 1999 with a tour de force actor like Brian Dennehy, or a deeply emotional Phil Hoffman. This modern, experimental versions of this classic play is probably not what the audiences want. Miller who has written many timeless pieces, this one perhaps his best, is meant to at least capture his idea of the characters when he wrote it. In this play the emotions are left on the shelf.

#Broadway Bob, Arthur Miller, No Bull With Raging Robert, Broadway, Tony Awards, Nathan Lane.