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Death of a Salesman (Theater, 1949)

The original 1949 Broadway production of the play Death of a Salesman launched a
n American classic. Death of a Saleman is considered one of the great works of 2
0th century American theater. With its timeless themes, it has been revived and
reimagined numerous times.
Death of a Salesman opened at the Morosco Theatre on February 10, 1949. It was w
ritten by playwright Arthur Miller and directed by Elia Kazan. The play was prod
uced by Kermit Bloomgarden and Walter Fried, and featured scenic design by Jo Mi
elziner.
Miller was a 33-year-old, promising new voice in American theater when Kazan, Br
oadway's leading director of serious drama, agreed to direct and co-produce Deat
h of a Salesman. The two had just collaborated on Miller's first Broadway succes
s, All My Sons, in 1947, for which each had won a Tony Awardâ for Best Play and Best
Director, respectively.
Although Kazan was enjoying a successful career as a Hollywood filmmakerâ having dire
cted in 1945 both the critically acclaimed A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and the Osca
r-winning A Gentleman's Agreementâ he stayed in New York to direct Miller's next proj
ect. Over and above his previous success with All My Sons, Kazan coveted his eme
rging reputation as America's premiere director of both film and stage. In addit
ion, although he had directed the original Broadway production of Tennessee Will
iams's acclaimed play A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) immediately after staging
All My Sons, his next two Broadway productions were not as successful.
Moreover, during the production of All My Sons, Miller and Kazan had formed an i
ntensely close friendship that they themselves would describe as that of kindred
spirits and brothers. This friendshipâ from its numerous artistic collaborations, to
a shared interest in famous women (most notably Marilyn Monroe), to its eventua
l dissolution in the wake of the House Un-American Activities Commission hearing
s on alleged communist infiltration of the entertainment industryâ would itself becom
e a real-life show business drama of loyalty, integrity, and betrayal. In 1948,
however, at the height of their friendship, Kazan and Miller set about developin
g a modern tragedy based upon the world of struggling salesmen that Miller knew
from growing up in New York during the Great Depression.
During casting for the play, Miller and Kazan expressed different visions for ho
w the main character, Willy Loman, should be played and what kind of actor shoul
d play him. Miller wanted an actor who was short in stature and could bring a co
medic quality to the role. Relatively early on, though, Kazan had in mind Lee J.
Cobb, a friend and colleague from his Depression-era days in the Group Theatre.
The barrel-chested, broad-shouldered, growly voiced Cobb presented little of th
e "shrimp" of a man Miller had originally conceived, but after Cobb auditioned M
iller deferred to Kazan's wishes.
From opening night Lee J. Cobb's Willy Loman became the face and body of the cha
racter and the iconic image of the play itself, even though Fredric March would
play Willy in the 1951 film. Miller would complain decades later that Cobb's lum
bering performance trampled essential comic subtleties out of the role. But the
American publicâ including the professional, amateur, and educational theater communi
ties that quickly absorbed the play into their standard repertoiresâ had embraced Cob
b's stage performance and, by extension, Kazan's rather than Miller's original v
ision of the character.
Rounding out the main cast, Mildred Dunnock played Willy's wife, Linda Loman; Ar
thur Kennedy played Biff, the family's older son; and Cameron Mitchell played Ha
ppy, the younger son.
With 742 performances, Death of a Salesman did not set box-office or longevity r
ecords for its timeâ even when compared with other Broadway dramas. Jack Kirkland's T
obacco Road in 1933, Patrick Hamilton's Angel Street in 1931, Philip Yadoff's An
na Lucasta in 1944, and Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee's Inherit the Wind in 195
5 all had longer runs. But none of those plays has had a comparable impact upon
Broadway or American culture.
Death of a Salesman won six Tony Awards: Best Play and Best Author for Miller, B
est Director for Kazan, Best Supporting Actor for Kennedy, Best Scenic Design fo
r Mielziner, and Best Producer for Bloomgarden and Fried. It also won a Pulitzer
Prize for Drama for Miller and a Theatre World Award for Mitchell.
In the ensuing years, numerous artists, including actor Dustin Hoffman and playw
right Adrienne Kennedy, would cite Death of a Salesman as a critical influence a
nd inspiration in their decision to work in professional theater. To Miller's de
light, the athletic, agile, short Hoffman played Lohman in a 1984 Broadway reviv
al of Salesman and a widely praised television staging of the play. Miller, at l
ong last seeing the comedic undertones of the character come to life in producti
on, hailed Hoffman's performance as better than Cobb's.
Numerous scholars and teachers of dramatic literature also point to their youthf
ul encounters with the play as milestone events in their careers. But perhaps th
e greatest testimony to Death of a Salesman's timelessness is that in the 60 yea
rs since its Broadway premiere, audiences from New York, to Wyoming, to Hawaii,
to Dublin, to Paris, to Beijing, have embraced the play as a penetrating examina
tion of their own lives, their own cultures, and their own times. Death of Sales
man continues to be regularly studied and perfomed in the 21st century.
Thomas A. Greenfield