"Death of a Salesman", the Tonys, and Broadway

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Andrew Garfield  (showbiz411)

I know not only that the Broadway season has ended, the Tony Awards dispensed with, and that Death of a Salesman has closed, but the memory of that production lingers. 

If history serves, the "Death" in question is likely to be the sole production of Arthur Miller's greatest achievement this young decade. The show's remarkably successful, sold-out run was unsurprising, given the involvement of director Mike Nichols and actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. The reviews were likewise filled with praise and platitudes, yet it was PSH's performance as Willy Loman that generated somewhat of a mixed reaction from critics. 

Given the bounty of seven noms for the show, I anticipated that the production would earn at least one of the three acting Tonys it was up for, including PSH, Andrew Garfield, and Linda Emond, the latter giving more universally praised performances as Biff and Linda, respectively. I managed to see the show days before the Tonys and was hoping one would walk away a winner.

Considering PSH's dedication to the stage and his selective approach to film work, it is likely we will see him on the Great White Way in the coming years in yet another iconic stage role. I for one would gladly queue to see him play James Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night. Garfield is about to grace movie screens the world over as the new Spiderman, and is thus poised to become one of the great movie star hopes of the future. That is, being half-British, it is likely he will manage to return to the stage every few years for a limited run of a modern classic.

Garfield's work was so captivating in "Death" that it is altogether possible he will find the stage the only outlet for certain acting muscles Hollywood is less likely to allow him to exercise. How he will shoulder his newfound celebrity will be interesting to observe, but it is possible that he will take the fame and riches in stride. 

As for Emond, she is a revered stage actor and will hopefully score another plum role in the near future. In the end, "Death" managed to win two Tonys, for Best Play Revival and Best Director of a Play for Nichols, who practically has enough of the statues to comprise a chess set.

With A Streetcar Named Desire still running on Broadway, a revival of Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf? planned for fall, and Glengarry Glen Ross also on the horizon, it seems the straight play is enjoying a bit of a resurgence in popularity. What is less clear is which American plays will join the concise list of the modern Broadway repertory that includes the above plays, as well as The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Iceman Cometh, and A View from the Bridge. Sam Shepard has seen both True West and Buried Child revived in the past 15 years or so, but isn't it time to begin to add plays of a more recent vintage to the mix, say those written in the past 25 years?