A Woman Rules This 'Salesman'
The ads for Death of a Salesman call it “the greatest American play.” It's also one of my favorites.
The 2012 revival starring Philip Seymour Hoffman remains a high-water mark for Broadway in general and for this play in particular. A 2022 revival featuring a Black Loman family was similarly excellent.
The 2026 version of Arthur Miller’s greatest work doesn’t quite reach those heights, but it has a brilliant performance at its center. Surprisingly, it’s not the actor playing Willy Loman.
Make no mistake, Nathan Lane is a very good Willy. The Broadway veteran takes some time to get going, but he comes into his own with several intense scenes in Act Two.
When it comes to Willy’s sons, Biff and Happy, director Joe Mantello breaks from tradition. He double-casts the roles, with different actors playing them as adolescents and adults. This choice creates some indelible stage pictures, particularly at the end of the first act.
But it blunts the impact of a scene late in the play where Biff makes an emotional discovery about his father. Having two Biffs onstage makes the revelation less powerful, not more.
Even so, one person keeps you watching: Laurie Metcalf as Linda, Willy’s wife and the boys’ mother. I’ve been lucky enough to see her in six Broadway shows, and this performance is her greatest yet. From the jump, Metcalf calibrates each line perfectly. (She won a richly deserved Tony for this role).
Linda has the famous “Attention must be paid” speech in Act One and the final lines in Act Two. Metcalf hits both monologues out of the park. While she delivers them differently from most actresses who play the part, the dramatic payoff is tremendous.
A woman giving the best performance in Death of a Salesman might sound like faint praise, but whatever issues I have with the production itself, Metcalf’s work lifts the whole endeavor.
At the Winter Garden Theatre through August 9
