A Conversation with David Richenthal on Working with Arthur Miller

Abstract

David Richenthal is an eminent Broadway producer who worked closely with Arthur Miller beginning in 1996. His producing credits include four plays by Arthur Miller on Broadway: Death of a Salesman (1999), directed by Robert Falls starring Brian Dennehy and winner of the Tony and Drama Desk awards for Best Revival of a Play; The Price (1999) directed by James Naughton, starring Harris Yulin and Jeffrey DeMunn; The Crucible (2002), directed by Richard Eyre, starring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney; and a Chicago production of Finishing the Picture (2004) directed by Robert Falls, starring Stacy Keach, Linda Lavin and Scott Glenn, co-produced with the Goodman Theatre.His other Broadway productions include The Miracle Worker (2010), starring Alison Pill and Abigail Breslin, directed by Kate Whoriskey; Finian's Rainbow starring Jim Norton, Kate Baldwin, Cheyenne Jackson and Christopher Fitzgerald, directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle; I Am My Own Wife (2003) by Doug Wright, directed by Moises Kaufman, starring Jefferson Mays (Tony, Pulitzer and Drama Desk Awards for Best New Play); Marc Salem's Mind Games on Broadway, Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night (2003), directed by Robert Falls, starring Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Dennehy, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robert Sean Leonard (Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Revival of a Play), among many others in the United States and England.This is the first time he has spoken at length about producing Arthur Miller's plays.RJ: David, I'd like to begin our conversation by reading from a March 23, 2001 On Stage and Off column in the New York Times by Jesse McKinley:While the rest of the nation worried about trivial matters like the stock market collapse, a few members of Broadway's producing corps were busy double-and even triple-booking themselves for next season.First up was David Richenthal, who has fast become Arthur Miller's favorite producer with recent revivals of Death of a Salesman and his 1968 drama, The Price. This week Mr. Richenthal was ready to confirm his next project: The Crucible, Mr. Miller's 1953 drama about the Salem witch trials (or the McCarthy hearings on Communism, depending on your yen for metaphor).Earlier reports had the production hunting for a star, but Mr. Richenthal has signed Liam Neeson to play the hero, John Proctor. The producer had also hired the British director Richard Eyre, the former artistic director of the Royal National Theater. A 15-week Broadway run is to open in late February. (3)That's quite a statement that you were fast becoming Miller's favorite producer. How did that professional relationship begin?DR: I saw a production of Ride Down Mount Morgan' at Williamstown where I have gone regularly for the last 25 years and, though I don't see everything, I do see a lot of productions there. One of the reasons I went to that particular production was that I was invited by the director Scott Elliot around the same time we were working on Present Laughter with Frank Langella.2The Ride Down Mount Morgan had never been done in the United States before and had only been done in England in an infamously mediocre production, or at least that's how Arthur Miller thought of it, starring Tom Conti. The production at Williamstown starred F. Murray Abraham.The play is about difficult subject matter, but it is definitely an underrated play. After seeing it in Williamstown, I decided I wanted to do it on Broadway so I contacted Arthur's agent Sam Cohn who I knew well enough that he appreciated my interest. Sam thought it was a good idea, so he suggested I meet with Arthur about mounting a Broadway production and Arthur invited me to his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. It's possible that the Williamstown production was still running at that time. We talked about the play, about the set that was problematic and I made a qualified commitment to produce it. The qualification involved Ben Brantley, who had just been hired by The New York Times and would go to see a lot at Williamstown. …