Editor’s Note

Abstract

Editor’s Note: For the fifth time since its original 1949 production that ran for 742 shows, Death of a Salesman has been revived on Broadway. This time it is the transfer of a Young Vic production that was first produced in 2019 in the United Kingdom and won two Olivier Awards. While the leads for the U.S. production remain the same—Wendell Pierce and Sharon D. Clarke—many of the other cast members are changed, and the sole director this time round is Miranda Cromwell, who had worked with Marianne Elliott on the Young Vic show. While there have been all-Black and mixed-cast productions in the United States since 1962 (Steve Marino offers a brief overview of these in his review), this is the first Broadway production trying this out, and they decided not to use an all-Black cast but keep certain characters in the show as white, which creates a slightly different resonance. That is clearly the focus of several of these reviewers, some of whom were more appreciative than others.David Palmer suggests that since Salesman has become so well-known, contemporary directors can approach it like jazz musicians, ready to take the drama in new and exciting directions to create fresh levels of meaning, and this latest version is an African American riff, one that allows Biff and Linda a greater dignity, Willy a credible level of insanity, and Happy a new interpretation borne out through a series of telling handshakes. Through the lens of Blackness the Loman family is able to morph into something entirely new, and Palmer concludes that this production presents “the struggle for dignity and acknowledgment as the core of the play.” Pointing out that Miller’s plays have been subjected to a variety of innovative approaches in the past, Marino describes how this new production incorporates Black cultural elements into its design, though he questions some of its staging decisions. While he did not feel that the play’s casting choices had that great of an impact overall given the play’s universality, Marino notes some moments when it was more effective than others. And while Marino tolerates most of the play’s innovations, Deborah Simon is less benevolent, suggesting that the set and a variety of effects were too disconcerting, as well as the cast lacking in cohesion, which all ultimately diminish the impact of Willy’s fate. Jane Dominik is similarly critical of certain aspects of the production, but offers even more detail and finds elements to also approve in this latest Broadway rendering of what has arguably become America’s best-known drama, to which, as Simon reminds us, “attention must be paid!”