Welcome back to Tony Talk, where Gold Derby contributors Sam Eckmann and David Buchanan offer Tony Awards analysis. In this edition, we tackle the seventh Broadway production of a classic American tragedy and a frontrunner for the Best Play Revival prize.
David Buchanan: Sam, this Broadway season has already been an embarrassment of riches with play revivals. In the fall, we had a starry remounting of Waiting for Godot with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter; the first Broadway production of Pulitzer Prize finalist Marjorie Prime starring legendary June Squibb; a chilling first Broadway mounting of Tracy Letts’ Bug starring Carrie Coon; a stunning new adaptation of Oedipus with Olivier winner Lesley Manville and Mark Strong; and, just last week, the hilariously biting Broadway premiere of Pulitzer finalist Becky Shaw.
I’m thrilled to report that our string of good luck continues with Joe Mantello’s production of Death of a Salesman with Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf, which opened last week to fantastic reviews. I found this production absolutely exquisite, and I had to immediately update a number of my Tony predictions, including now ranking it the frontrunner for Best Play Revival. Did you respond as well to this staging as I did?
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Sam Eckmann: I admit that when this latest revival was announced, my reactions was: “Again?” Death of a Salesman is undoubtedly one of the greatest theater scripts ever written — it’s certainly one of my favorites. But that also means it is constantly revived; in fact, a staging featuring Wendell Pierce and Sharon D. Clarke opened on Broadway just four years ago.
But my skepticism was shattered from the first moment of this stunning revival. Scenic designer Chloe Lamford has made brilliant use of the gargantuan stage at the Winter Garden Theatre, crafting a decrepit car garage with pillars that stretch up past the proscenium. Lane’s Willy Loman then drives a car right onto stage where it remains parked as a seemingly constant threat. Mantello surprised me with what is perhaps his most conceptual Broadway staging to date. There are no literal set pieces, no highly detailed kitchen for the characters to wallow in. The action all takes place in this haunted space, with Willy’s memories emerging between the pillars of the garage, drifting in and out of focus across a gravelly floor.
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Salesman is a play I’ve been reading, analyzing, and watching since I was in high school. And yet, Mantello’s production feels so distinct from the versions that have come before that it felt like I was hearing new meaning from lines I’ve read a hundred times. Needless to say, I also adjusted many of my Tony predictions. There are ironically many Broadway debuts in the revival category this year, but this reinterpretation of a classic has just become a major threat for the top award.
Buchanan: The Best Revival race will be suspenseful until the moment the envelop is opened on June 7. But one large advantage that this staging of Salesman has over the other productions in contention so far is how much of an emotional wallop it delivers. Oedipus — its biggest rival to date — makes a tremendous impact, from Manville’s haunting, delicately delivered monologue to its chill-inducing final moments. But that show was also operating in a different affective register than Salesman.
I knew I’d be in tears in the final stretch of Salesman, but I was not expecting them to come so early during the Act 1 scene with Linda, Biff, and Happy — terrifically played by Metcalf, Christopher Abbott, and Ben Ahlers — as they discuss Willy’s suicide attempts. And I have never been so crushed during the scene where Biff begs Willy to acknowledge that he’s “a dime a dozen.” It was so achingly portrayed by this quartet, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget seeing those tears fall down the profile of Lane’s face.
Before we dive into the incredibly competitive acting races, I have to pick up on your thread of Mantello’s vision. The director race will no doubt feature Oedipus‘ Robert Icke and Mantello in strong positions, but this category has had a hot streak of directors from original plays in the past eight years, from Oh, Mary! and Stereophonic to Indecent, and more. That could bode very well for Whitney White and her terrific work on Liberation, the frontrunner for Best Play. But prior to 2017, the category boasted a healthy run of revivals, too, including Ivo van Hove’s A View From the Bridge, Pam McKinnon’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and Mike Nichols’ own Death of a Salesman.
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I’ve had Icke in first position, but Mantello’s work convinced me to switch, for now. Although the set is simple, the director has conjured myriad lingering stage images: Young Biff awash in a nostalgic auburn glow in his football uniform standing on the hood of the 1964 Chevy; The Woman’s hazy visage appearing through the window of the garage door; and, as you mentioned, Lane’s grand entrance in that simonized car, headlines blazing into the audience. Do you think he can prevail over Icke, White, and the other top contenders?
Eckmann: I’ve also switched to Mantello in director for the moment. He accomplishes a rare feat for such an oft-performed play: surprising the audience with a fresh concept that makes an old script feel fresh and urgent. The race is far from a done deal of course. White has turned into one of the most sought after theater directors of recent years, and there will certainly be voters who want to reward her for Liberation — arguably the crown jewel of her recent hot streak.
Icke has never won before either, and there will be folks who think he needs to win for Oedipus, whether in revival or director. But Mantello possesses a slight edge given the massive scope of this production, and that his show is currently running while the aforementioned productions of Liberation and Oedipus have closed.
I think it’s likely that Mantello will direct at least one of his actors to a Tony win. I previously resisted placing Metcalf in my top position for Featured Actress because I believed voters would opt to bestow someone with their first Tony this year, rather than give Metcalf a third trophy. But after seeing her “attention must be paid” scene, it feels like I had no other option but to put her at the top of my rankings. She resists every urge to bellow that famous line, as so many actors before her have done. Instead, she gives the entire moment a quiet intensity, as if Linda is unravelling inside but using the last bit of stamina she has to keep it together for her sons. I’ve never observed the scene played the way Metcalf has interpreted it, and it feels like the now-definitive take.
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I’m similarly bullish on Christopher Abbott’s chances in Featured Actor. He gives an overall stellar performance as Biff, but it’s his final scene which seals his nomination. When Biff pleads to Willy to let him go, the lines are often solely directed at Willy as a last ditch tactic to save the father’s life. But Abbott gives this moment a second meaning, as the audience realizes that Biff’s words are just as much for himself as they are for his father. I don’t think there is a dry eye in the house at that point. This layered take also makes Lane’s realization the Biff “likes me” even more brutal. Lane will undoubtedly find himself in a hot race with John Lithgow and Mark Strong for lead actor. Do you think he can claim a fourth Tony?
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Buchanan: Lithgow is not the lock at this point in the race that many have assumed since winning the Olivier Award for Giant last year. Yes, we’ve seen the winner of that coveted prize repeat at the Tonys many times before, like Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray prevailing over Laura Donnelly from The Hills of California. But Lane’s Willy Loman is an entirely new factor in the repeat contest of Lithgow and Strong; the latter will be formidable, too, if the Tony voters break in Oedipus‘ favor overall.
I will say that subjectively, Lane’s performance hit me hardest of all the contenders in that category that I’ve seen thus far. At the end of the restaurant scene in Act 2, when the waiter has to tell Willy that his boys have abandoned him, Lane radiates a look of enfeeblement and dejection that I still can’t quite shake. His final onstage moments, too, are utterly transfixing.
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Depending on how the rest of the field shapes up, I would love to see a surprise nomination for Ahlers. None of the actors who have played Happy in the past six Broadway productions since 1949 have been nominated, but there’s something different about how he and Mantello approached the role this time.He absolutely owns that first scene opposite Biff with his boyish charm and zeal for life. And then over the subsequent three hours, Ahlers curdles it into a most sickening display of selfishness. His look of horror at Willy and Biff’s final confrontation is damn near unforgettable, too. This is a deserving Loman quartet to all earn nominations.
