As ever, there is a lot to be excited about on Broadway this spring, from the wide slate of new musicals (Titanique! The Lost Boys! Schmigadoon!) to the big plays coming in from London (Giant, The Fear of 13). Among the most eagerly anticipated productions? A new revival of Arthur Miller’s classic 1949 play Death of a Salesman, starring a knock-down cast: Nathan Lane as the show’s tragic, titular traveling salesman, Willy Loman; Laurie Metcalf as Willy’s devoted wife, Linda; Christopher Abbott (Girls, Sanctuary) as the Lomans’ unmoored older son, Biff; and Ben Ahlers (The Gilded Age, The Last of Us) as Happy, Biff’s rakish younger brother. Joe Mantello, a longtime collaborator of Metcalf’s—their most recent joint effort, Little Bear Ridge Road, ran on Broadway just last fall—directs.
Salesman, a key work in the American theatrical canon, has been revived on Broadway five times before now—almost once a decade since 1975. Its most recent staging, however, was only three years ago, starring Wendell Pierce and Sharon D Clarke and directed by Miranda Cromwell. (Pierce received a Tony nomination for his affecting lead turn as Willy.) So, what can audiences expect from a new adaptation now?
“Audiences should expect to experience Salesman through a slightly new prism,” Mantello tells Vogue. “By stripping it down and loosening it from strict naturalism, we’re asking different questions of it, with the hope that the play feels immediate and alive—not reverential or distant.”
The other obvious draw, of course, is the cast—Metcalf and Lane being two of our foremost theater actors, and Abbott and Ahlers representing the thrilling potential of a new generation. (Salesman will mark Ahlers’s Broadway debut, while Abbott hasn’t appeared on the Main Stem since 2011.) Asked what has surprised him most about working with those actors, Mantello replies, “How willing they’ve been to interrogate, rather than simply perform, the script. Everyone has embraced the idea of questioning long-held assumptions about the play, and that level of curiosity has been incredibly energizing.”
Before Death of a Salesman begins previews at the Winter Garden on March 6 (its opening night is set for April 9), here’s an exclusive first look at the cast, photographed by Thea Traff. We’ll see you at the theater.


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