Producers Cindy Tolan, Elliott & Harper Productions and Kwame Kwei-Armah are teaming up once again to bring the critically-hailed Young Vic / West End production of Death of a Salesman to Broadway next season.
Director Miranda Cromwell co-directed the London production alongside Marianne Elliott, and together they won the 2020 Olivier Award for Best Direction.
Wendell Pierce (Serious Money, The Piano Lesson, The Wire, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan) and Sharon D. Clarke (Caroline, Or Change) are set to reprise their acclaimed performances as Willy and Linda Loman, for which Clarke received the Olivier Award for Best Actress and Pierce was nominated for Best Actor for Death of a Salesman on the West End.
Tony Award winner André De Shields (Hadestown) will join the cast as Willy’s brother, Ben. Film, television and stage actor Khris Davis (Heart of a Lion, Sweat, Atlanta, Judas and the Black Messiah) also boards Death of a Salesman as the Lomans’ son Biff.
“Looking at Death of a Salesman from the perspective of a Black family living in a predominantly White capitalist world changes the way that you hear this text,” said Cromwell. “Wendell and Sharon illuminate the heart of this play in a new way that is both universal and entirely specific.”
“I have always been fascinated by the Loman family’s wrestle with assimilation, and the cost of that struggle on one’s mental health, on your family and on your community,” said Kwei-Armah. “This production breathes new life into a show that people think they know.”
Tolan, winner of a 2022 BAFTA Award, commented, “When this production played at the Young Vic in 2019, we heard from so many young people seeing it for the first time, who said they felt like the play was written specifically for them and for this era. We’re excited to bring that feeling to New York audiences, and we hope that the show’s timeless relevance resonates in the same way.”
“We’re thrilled to bring this new production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman to Broadway, led by the brilliant Miranda Cromwell,” said Marianne Elliott and Chris Harper of Elliott and Harper Productions. “Miranda brings a unique vision and perspective to this classic piece of American theater and explores some of the most important themes at the heart of the show in an entirely new light. There is no better team to tell this story for a new generation of Broadway audiences.”
Few works of drama loom as large in the national psyche as Death of a Salesman, Miller’s seminal and searing deconstruction of the American Dream. It caused a critical sensation when it premiered on Broadway in 1949 with a production directed by Elia Kazan.
It went on to win six Tony Awards including Best Play, and was also honored with the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play. The play has enjoyed four previous Broadway revivals, three of which won the Tony Award for Best Revival.
Opening night is set for Sunday, Oct. 9, at the Hudson Theatre (141 West 44th Street), and the show will run for a strictly limited 17-week engagement starting Monday, Sept. 19.
By Marc J. Franklin
Joining the production are Blake DeLong as Howard/Stanley, Lynn Hawley as The Woman/Jenny, Grace Porter as Letta/Jazz Singer, Kevin Ramessar as Musician, Stephen Stocking as Bernard, Chelsea Lee Williams as Miss Forsythe, and The Wire’s Delaney Williams as Charley, Willy’s neighbor and only friend.
The creative team includes Olivier Award winner and Tony Award nominee Anna Fleischle (scenic and co-costume design), Sarita Fellows (co-costume design), Tony Award nominee Jen Schriever (lighting design), Tony Award nominee Mikaal Sulaiman (sound design), Femi Temowo (composer), Drama Desk Award nominee Nikiya Mathis (hair design), Erica A. Hart & Daniel Swee (casting) and John Miller (music coordinator).
Visit www.salesmanonbroadway.com for more information and to purchase tickets.