| 20 May |
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Hoo-rah!
- You saw it here folks. My first true NYC Catharsis. Lucky me. Copious weeping on all fronts.
- It is truly one of the great American plays, and they did it absolute justice. The text was brought to life in ways I never imagined.
- Possibly the most powerful moments for me were watching Willy Loman’s delusions blend with real life– I have to give due credit to the lighting and the blocking for making these moments feel lonely and truly unsettling.
- I enjoyed the contrast between the father/son relationship of Willy/Biff and Charley/Bernard. Willy pumps Biff so full of hot air and is incredibly involved in Biff’s life and he ends up a failure. Charley, on the other hand, had what seemed to be a laissez-faire approach to fathering. He was kind and genial to Bernard, but was never a super active part of his life, and look at how Bernard turned out– presenting cases to the Supreme Court!
- How do Andrew Garfield and Philip Seymour Hoffman maintain their throats, performing this once, sometimes twice a day? The level of visceral anger and yelling and sobbing they produce (never unjustified in my opinion) would undoubtedly destroy the voice of mere mortals.
- Again, Biff and Willy– just… oh god. Their rapport is so genuine and heartbreaking: such wonderful intentions turn so very sour. Their refusal to level with each other is infuriating and a fundamentally timeless element of families. Andrew Garfield and Philip Seymour Hoffman invest everything they have into these roles; I’ve never seen such raw, unabashed emotion on stage before.
Blech…
- Not a critique of the show, but rather the audience: am I the only person who hates the tradition of raucous clapping when a famous actor enters a scene for the first time? Ughh… completely kills the moment.
- I appreciate the intention of using the music from the original production, but I felt the play would have been better served with a different soundtrack. Sorry, the flute is just a hokey instrument to me.
- While undoubtedly a masterful performance well-deserving of its Tony nomination, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Willy Loman seemed one too many times exactly like the performance Dustin Hoffman gave in the 1985 film. Particularly his laugh.
- I did not enjoy the performance of the actor playing Howard. At all. Way too over the top and farcical.
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3 comments to '‘Death of a Salesman’ mini-review'
July 31, 2012
[…] production than a three-hour one. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good three hour play (see my Death of a Salesman review), but there’s nothing worse if twenty minutes in you realize its destined to be a complete […]
November 22, 2013
[…] by countless children, I decided to organize a posse and make a go at rush tickets. Based on my Death of a Salesman experience, I knew this would require waking up at an ungodly hour on a day I’d usually be […]
October 14, 2015
You’re right. It is very depressing but I felt it also had lossens for parents and others who influence young people. One of the worst things you can do, which this play exposes, is imposing your wishes on the young, the goals that you think they should reach. That is what makes the play so superb. It shows, as you say, every man or woman’s story, but it also encourages listening to your children, tuning in to their desires,even if they are different from our own. In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman was so busy trying to impress his family, he had stopped listening. What he wanted for them was what he wanted for himself. I think, too, the play suggests we stop once in awhile at least in our lives and take stock of where we’re going. Is it working? Willy Loman had opportunities through his friend but his pride stood in his way. Another lesson. There was humor in the play as well. That helped me deal with the tragic ending.
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