A work that is highly original yet highly influential may eventually become stale. The once-open eyes appear pre-loaded behind them, as if they were part of common human heritage.
This is the ironic trajectory of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.” When it premiered on Broadway in 1949, portraying the false hopes of capitalism and the dysfunctional families it left behind, there was a father who “had to call the doctor because he couldn’t stop crying” . Director Mike Nichols saw it at the time,“It was like an explosion.”
As “the salesman” spread through culture with astonishing speed, it helped to introduce a seismic reappraisal in the decades that followed. A job that makes it feel as fresh as it once was is a tough job for those trying to revive it. “Willie Lohmann” has long been shorthand for “low man” in the pecking order. And anyone who was required to read in high school already knows this story. A washed-up salesman’s obsession with American success destroys not only his own life, but that of his wife Linda and their sons Happy and Biff.
So aside from stunt casting and radical resetting, directors have to dig deeper or broader. , examined the production with microscopic precision, and dug deeper, even replicating Joe Mielziner’s original set design and Alex North’s music. did.
Latest Broadway RevivalOpening at the Hudson Theater on Sunday, is a broader, much richer, and mostly successful approach. For the first time in a large-scale New York production, Romans was played by a black actor. I’m in. And Sharon D. Clarke as Linda paradoxically shatters her stoicism, turning what’s usually portrayed as unwavering loyalty into a kind of careless comorbidity.
Miranda Cromwell’s revival, based on what she directed in London with Marianne Elliott in 2019, offers more than just black romance, with Chris Davis as Biff and McKinley Belcher III as Happy. It also crucially puts them in a mostly white world. So Willie’s employer (Blake DeLong), neighbor (Delaney Williams), and his mistress (Lynn Hawley) are more than foils in the usual sense. Like Willie, the personal, financial and now racial threads of their actions can never be unraveled. It inspires moments where Willie’s paranoia seems as well-founded as it is fantastical, such as the negotiations with.
It’s even more surprising that the production achieves this effect with only minor changes to dialogue. is. The first black students were not admitted until 1950 — And even then, only after lawsuits. The re-compartmentalization and gentrification that drove many people like the Roma out of their homes.
Therefore, not being colorblind is central to the effectiveness of casting. Neither black nor white actors ignore race. They mine it and lead the characters to lives that are completely tangible and vivid. Willie’s mistress has an ear-bending, working-class, white Boston accent. Mark as an outsider. (Williams excels in that part.) And Biff and Happy’s take on trash talk is no less than Linda’s mother’s “don’t cross me” admonition, and it’s “finally worth paying attention to.” There is!” — evokes a line you’ve heard countless times and asserts its vengeful reality.
That awakening culminates in a theatrical climax with André De Shields’ terrifying performance as the ghost of Willie’s older brother, Ben. Although dressed like Liberace in a white suit and crystal-encrusted shoes (the costume is by Freischle and Sarita Fellowes), every word he speaks sounds like an elaborate curse. Boy, when he warned Biff not to “fight fair with strangers.” You’ll never get out of the jungle like that,” he adds with a nasty twist to the words “boy” and “jungle” that make you feel like you should bend down.
But what works to stabilize and enhance performance doesn’t always work across production. Cromwell’s use of expressionist apparatus, such as silhouettes and frozen poses, to suggest Willie’s fragmented consciousness is a clear, untethered invasion of acquired Polaroid memories. It looks like And the wistful music by Femi Temowo sets the mood for impending tragedy, including the beautiful spiritual setting of “When the Trumpet Strikes,” but is used for comic effect or, worse, solace. There is no solace in “Salesman”.
In general, the balance of light and dark in this very dark play still doesn’t feel natural. In Willie’s memory, Biff and Happy isn’t just boyish, it’s a boyish cliché. I try to solve this textual problem by underlining it, but Cromwell’s instructions exacerbate the problem. Willie himself, on the other hand, is often so monstrously monstrous that sometimes he just can’t see past the monstrosity of American business that Miller is trying to accuse.
Still, it can’t stop the engine of the final scene, sparking, huffing, and pushing the play into great drama. When the lies that bind them are finally unleashed, each of the trapped family members is freed to choose life, death, or a combination. (After all, the play’s final words are “We are free.”) They have nothing left to sell. if you believe As Nichols said in 2012“Everybody in America is a salesman now,” you might feel a shudder of recognition.
Death of the Salesman
at the Hudson Theater in Manhattan through January 15th. salesmanonbroadway.comRunning time: 3 hours 10 minutes.