Willy Loman in the Age of Social Media
Attention Must Be Paid to Willy Loman The stunning new production of Death of a Salesman , now running in New York, has damning implications for today's image-obsessed culture. I read Arthur Miller's play in high school and took it as a distant critique of the dangers of the so-called American dream. At the time, the work did not seem to apply to my schoolmates or to me; we were headed for college and shiny futures. Years later, in 2012, I saw the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman as the doomed Willy Loman and found his performance brutal and definitive, an apt rendering of the playwright’s intentions. (Hoffman fatally overdosed shortly after his run in the play; there were reports that his mental health had deteriorated while he played Loman.) Now, Broadway’s latest reimaging of Salesman lands, to quote the New York Times , “like a haymaker to the temple.” Nathan Lane as Willy Loman Helmed by the incomparable Nathan Lane, it shatters the audience. The woman next to me at t...
