Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf on bringing 'Death of a Salesman' back to Broadway

Geoff Bennett:

"Death of a Salesman" tells the story of Willy Loman, a traveling salesman chasing the American dream, but never quite able to reach it.

Now the classic is back on Broadway in a new production that underscores the play's enduring relevance. And audiences and critics alike are responding. The revival has become both a box office and critical success, earning nine Tony Award nominations, more than any other play this season.

Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown joined two of today's leading actors, Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf, at the Winter Garden Theatre for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Laurie Metcalf, Actress:

Willy, what has he got against you?

Nathan Lane, Actor:

I'm so tired. Let's not talk anymore.

Jeffrey Brown:

It's "Death of a Salesman," at once familiar and as we have never seen it before, Willy Loman played by Nathan Lane, his wife, Linda, Laurie Metcalf, their sons Biff and happy, Christopher Abbott and Ben Ahlers.

But instead of domestic furniture, a '64 Chevy dominates the stage. Rather than their postwar home, where the play is typically set, a timeless and placeless industrial warehouse.

Laurie Metcalf:

Are we in your mind?

Nathan Lane:

We're in my mind. We're in Willy's mind. By taking it out of the domesticity of the house in 1949, I think it has freed the play. It feels like Greek tragedy.

Jeffrey Brown:

It certainly is American tragedy, even the American tragedy.

Nathan Lane:

It's not what you say. It's how you say it because personality always wins the day.

Laurie Metcalf:

Oliver always thought the highest to him.

Nathan Lane:

Will you let me talk?

Jeffrey Brown:

Written by legendary playwright Arthur Miller in 1949.

Nathan Lane:

Arthur Miller tapped into something and it is always teaching us about who we are as human beings, as families, as mothers and fathers and sons and who we are as a country.

Laurie Metcalf:

Two hundred dollars should carry us, but that includes the last payment on the mortgage.

Jeffrey Brown:

Remarkably, one person who's never seen it, Laurie Metcalf, purposely.

Laurie Metcalf:

Whatever production I saw, then the performance of Linda Loman would be permanently -- I wouldn't be able to think of it without thinking of whoever's performance it was. So I deliberately stayed away from all the productions of it, thinking way down the line, hey, like now, I'd be able to do the role.

So...

Jeffrey Brown:

But that's thinking way back, right?

Laurie Metcalf:

Yes, way back.

Jeffrey Brown:

Imagining this day might come.

Laurie Metcalf:

Well...

Nathan Lane:

Yes. She has seen very few plays.

(Laughter)

Laurie Metcalf:

Yes, over the years.

(Crosstalk)

Nathan Lane:

It kind of limits...

Laurie Metcalf:

I don't get out much. So...

(Laughter)

Jeffrey Brown:

Now 70, she's definitively made an impression on stage and screen, a charter member of Chicago's renowned Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Aunt Jackie on the hit sitcom "Roseanne."

Laurie Metcalf:

I am not doing that again. You can't make me.

Jeffrey Brown:

Oscar-nominated for her role in Greta Gerwig's film "Lady Bird."

Laurie Metcalf:

No one's asking you to be perfect. Just consider it.

Jeffrey Brown:

Back-to-back Tony Awards for 2017's "A Doll''s House Part 2" and 2018's "Three Tall Women," and now her own Linda Loman, played with an unusual strength and fierceness.

Laurie Metcalf:

I don't say he's a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper, and he isn't the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.

We were looking for her to be a partner to Willy, looking for somebody who has boundaries, I guess, rather than zero boundaries. Like, there are things that she will do for the family, and then things that she won't put up with anymore.

Nathan Lane:

Look at that body. It's disgusting.

Jeffrey Brown:

Nathan Lane is also 70 and also acting royalty.

Nathan Lane:

No, don't, like, pierce the toast.

Jeffrey Brown:

On screen in such films as "The Birdcage" and stage." He's a three-time Tony winner, including for "The Producers."

Nathan Lane:

So, in order for our scheme to work, we'd have to find a surefire flop.

Jeffrey Brown:

Like Metcalf, he dreamed of one day taking on "Salesman," but unlike her, he went out of his way to see it.

Nathan Lane:

I'm the exact opposite. I have seen many productions. Yes, I saw it when I was 10 years old, and was upset by it at 10. So I had to banish the ghosts of this production.

Actor:

He's got spirit!

Jeffrey Brown:

Renowned Willy Lomans have included Lee J. Cobb and George C. Scott, Dustin Hoffman, Brian Dennehy, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, Most recently Wendell Pierce in a production that reimagined the Loman family as Black.

Nathan Lane:

So I had to let go of all of that.

Jeffrey Brown:

But how do you do that?

(Laughter)

Laurie Metcalf:

Shock treatment.

Nathan Lane:

How do you do that?

You take the play and you learn it and then you go moment to moment with the people you are actually going to be on stage with in a rehearsal and slowly, but surely you start to build your own Willy Loman.

Jeffrey Brown:

Pushing himself and his sons relentlessly to reach the American dream, dreaming of himself as bigger than he will ever be, Willy ends up used and discarded. In one famous scene, he implores his young boss, Howard, to let him stop traveling.

Nathan Lane:

I'm talking about your father. There were promises made across this desk. You mustn't tell me. You've got people to see. I put 34 years into this firm, Howard, and now I can't pay my insurance. You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away. A man is not a piece of fruit.

He's fighting. That's what makes him an interesting character. He's not the most likable guy. He's a mass of contradictions and insecurities. But he is fighting for his life.

Laurie Metcalf:

I think that's why you root for characters like that, because they just don't stop fighting. Whether they're likable or unlikable or whatever, you have to root for the tenacity of it.

Jeffrey Brown:

And in the reimagined timeless setting by Director Joe Mantello and the creative team, all nominated for Tonys, you can't help seeing the enduring relevance of the play.

It even planted a few hints, including having Willy's boss hold a contemporary to-go coffee cup.

Nathan Lane:

You know, in 1949, Willy was seen as the victim of capitalism and the system and he just can't understand why it's not working. I'm doing all the right things. And just like there's a lot of men in this country who feel they were replaced or erased by...

Jeffrey Brown:

Still today.

(Crosstalk)

Nathan Lane:

... by A.I., DEI. They're -- and they were promised something, and they're angry. And I think Willy is -- could be counted among them.

Jeffrey Brown:

It's emotionally powerful to watch. It must be emotionally draining to play.

Laurie Metcalf:

Yes, it's very emotionally hard to get through. You leave your emotions on the stage, but mentally it's hard to keep the ball in the air for three hours.

Nathan Lane:

Yes, it is draining. It is -- it calls upon everything you have and it, and you can't hide in this play. It is -- it's a play that tests you and costs you. But every night, when you hear weeping in the dark, it's -- you feel it's all been worth it.

Jeffrey Brown:

You hear it. You're on stage and you...

Nathan Lane:

Oh, sure.

Jeffrey Brown:

Yes.

Nathan Lane:

No, you can hear people weeping. But this is -- I'm living proof that at 70 dreams can still come true. That's how it feels. To do this play is a privilege. It is the ultimate privilege of my entire career is to stand on this stage and say, you can't eat the orange and throw the peel away. A man is not a piece of fruit.

It's why I wanted to be an actor.

Laurie Metcalf:

Will you ask Howard to let you work in New York?

Nathan Lane:

First thing in the morning. Everything will be all right.

Jeffrey Brown:

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jeffrey Brown on Broadway.