Arthur Miller may have died two decades ago, but America’s answer to Euripides and Sophocles is having a moment. The great tragedian’s plays have been revived, and revived again, ever since he first broke through in 1947 with All My Sons, but even by his standards, the new productions just keep on coming. His most famous play, Death of a Salesman, has opened on Broadway to rave reviews and Tony nominations galore, with a cast-against-type Nathan Lane as the doomed Willy Loman and Laurie Metcalf as his loyal wife Linda. Across the pond, Bryan Cranston has recently finished an equally acclaimed run as Joe Keller in All My Sons.
There are high-profile new productions of Death of a Salesman planned for London’s National Theatre (with Paul Mescal) and Stratford, Ontario’s Shakespeare festival, and no fewer than nine international stagings of The Crucible taking place this year. Other, more obscure, Miller plays, from The Price to Broken Glass – which recently played at the Young Vic in London, speaking volumes about his transatlantic appeal – are receiving new productions. A postmodern spin on The Crucible, John Proctor is the Villain, had a lauded run in the West End after a similarly successful spell on Broadway. And Miller’s daughter, Rebecca, is herself an accomplished filmmaker whose recent documentary on Martin Scorsese, Mr. Scorsese, attracted rave reviews, suggesting that creative genius has passed down the generations.
