After his revelatory dramatic performances in The Iceman Cometh and Angels in America, it seemed only a matter of time before Nathan Lane would take on Willy Loman, one of the most iconic roles in American theater. It’s been a long wait, but it has definitely paid off. Add to that Laurie Metcalf as his co-star, several superb supporting performances, and a powerful staging by Joe Mantello, and you have a revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman that represents a highlight of the theater season.
People will rightly complain that the show should be housed in a smaller theater than the cavernous Winter Garden, a venue far more suitable for large-scale musicals (notwithstanding Wolf Hall and Good Night, and Good Luck). But the sheer emotional power of this production overcomes the lack of intimacy even as the performers never resort to histrionics to reach the rafters.
Mantello’s staging is largely traditional and respectful, but it gives the play a more dreamlike, cinematic feel than usual. More than any previous Salesman I’ve seen, this rendition truly seems to be taking place in Willy’s fragmented mind, with Chloe Lamford’s set design suggesting a massive, dilapidated garage (the numerous pillars, though, seem unnecessary). Besides a few pieces of furniture here and there, the main scenic element is the full-size car that Willy drives on in the opening scene and drives off for his final fateful excursion.
[Read David Finkle’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
Another notable change from previous productions is the use of additional performers, Joaquin Conseulos (son of Mark) and Jake Termine, to play the younger Biff and Happy respectively. It’s a canny idea that permits the dual versions of the sons to occasionally appear onstage together in a way that emphasizes the difference between their youthful idealism and older jadedness.
Lane effectively tamps down his comedic instincts and isn’t afraid to make his Willy irritating and unlikeable at times, especially in his harsh treatment of his loyal but long-suffering wife. He also conveys the character’s pathos and helplessness in such a vivid manner that you find yourself wincing during such scenes as the one in which he’s humiliated by his much younger boss (John Drea) when he asks to be taken off the road and is instead callously let go. His Willy is a tragic figure as much defined by his own failures as society’s abuse of him. Yet he remains wholly sympathetic.
Metcalf, not surprisingly, matches Lane step for step, whether poignantly displaying Linda’s enduring love for her husband or her anger at the way his sons mistreat him. Her delivery of the iconic “Attention must be paid” speech, as familiar as Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy, feels fully lived-in, and she displays her character’s increasing desperation with subtle emotional gradations.
Christopher Abbott seems to start slowly as Biff, not making a strong enough impression in the first act. But he more than makes up for it as the play goes along, and the moment in which Biff nearly strikes his father in rage is frightening in its intensity. Happy, a character who in lesser performers’ hands can recede into the background, is so charismatically played by Ben Ahlers that he more than holds his own with his better-known co-stars. There are also excellent turns by Jonathan Cake, applying a quietly creepy veneer to the mythical Uncle Ben, and K. Todd Freeman, projecting an aura of decency as Charley, Willy’s only friend.
The hauntingly atmospheric production further benefits from Jack Knowles’ crepuscular lighting, even if it’s too dim at times, and Caroline Shaw’s suitably mournful music.
There has certainly been no shortage of revivals of Death of a Salesman on Broadway, the most recent being the largely Black-cast revival less than four years ago. But with a play so important and a production this outstanding, it’s reappearance should be welcomed.
Death of a Salesman opened April 9, 2026, at the Winter Garden Theatre and runs through August 9. Tickets and information: salesmanbroadway.com
