Arthur Miller by Brian Dennehy (Entertainment Weekly)
Hyfler/Rosner
THE ENORMOUS POPULARITY OF ARTHUR MILLER'S plays-All My
Sons, A View From the Bridge, The Crucible, and many
others-confounded many elitists, but for millions of people
around the world they have been the very definition of art
as a shared intellectual and emotional experience. But the
surpassing importance of Arthur Miller lies not in the
number of his plays or his passionate morality, or even in
his brave and constant liberalism. His greatest gift to us
was his poetry, his lyricism, the evergreen resonance of his
writing. At the end of Death of a Salesman [for which
Dennehy won a 1999 Tony Award], Willy Loman lies in his
grave, driven to suicide by demons, real and imaginary. His
old friend Charley speaks: "You don't understand: Willy was
a salesman. And for a salesman, there is no rock bottom to
the life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you
the law or give you medicine. He's a man way out there in
the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they
start not smiling back-that's an earthquake. And then you
get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you're
finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to
dream, boy. It comes with the territory." Thanks, Arthur,
for sharing your dreams. (Miller died of congestive heart
failure in Roxbury, Conn.)
Bob Feigel
magnanimously proffered:
>My son's English teacher has a gift for ruining books. When he told
>me they were going to do Death of a Salesman in his class, I decided
>that he *had* to see it performed before the teacher had a chance to
>make him hate it.
>
>When I was in high school, I saw George C. Scott's amazing performance
>as Willy Loman. Last week, my son and I watched a tape of Dustin
>Hoffman's version (with John Malkovitch as Biff and Charles Durning as
>Charley.) For me, it was fascinating to compare how such different
>actors could both be so excellent in that role, and to be reminded
>what an eloquent play it is.
Thankfully, my parents felt the same way. DOAS was the first "live
theatre" I saw. It was a most powerful and transforming experience and
I've never forgotten it.
"It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen
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Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
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Terry Ellsworth
(sort of the Dalai Lama of the theatre). Edward Albee is a far superior
and more literate playwright.
Terry Ellsworth
James Neibaur
> DVD just
> isn't as powerful an experience as being in a darkened theater, no
> matter how excellent the acting. But we did have a really good
> discussion about it afterwards (among other things, talking about what
> Biff's future may have been) and he said that the class discussion
> isn't ruining it for him, now that he already appreciates the play.
I never have seen the older film version of it (with Fredric March as Willy
Loman). That would be interesting (although I am told the play is
"hollywoodized" in that version).
JN