Steven Chaikelson, Professor of Professional Practice and Head of Theatre Management & Producing, produces the Broadway comeback of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, considered one of the greatest American plays of the twentieth century.
Set in the 1940s, the two-act play focuses on salesman Willy Loman and his struggles and failures trying to achieve the American dream in New York. Miller’s play first opened on Broadway in 1949 and won the Tony Award for best play and the Pulitzer Prize for drama. This new revival opened at the Hudson Theatre on September 19 and will run through January 15, 2023.
“Anyone can sell the American dream. But can everyone own it?” posits the promotional campaign of the play. “This powerful interpretation of Miller’s classic drama illuminates the dark underbelly of the American Dream and its elusive promise of equality and opportunity for all.”
“The difference with this particular production is that the story is being told for the first time on Broadway from the perspective of an African American family,” Chaikelson replied when asked about this revival. “As a result, between the casting choices, the direction, and the design, even though the script is virtually identical to the original, it feels like a new play.”
“It’s classic, classic, classic American,” award-winning actress Sharon D. Clarke, who will star in the role of Linda Loman, explained to the Washington Post. “I’ve done a lot of American stuff, but as a Black actor, I never thought I’d be playing this role. It’s 2022. We’re making history doing this production.”
This new production was first staged at the Young Vic theater in London in 2019. However, due to the pandemic, it was transferred to the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End for a limited capacity. The show received rave reviews—The New York Times called it an “electrifying revival”—was nominated for many awards, and won the Olivier Award (the equivalent of Broadway’s Tony Awards) for Best Direction and Best Actress in a Play.
The play is directed by Miranda Cromwell, who won an Olivier Award alongside Marianne Elliott for both productions in London. Olivier Award nominee Wendell Pierce will star in the role of Willy Loman, and a new cast of supporting actors has also joined the production in New York, led by Tony winner André De Shields, McKinley Belcher III, and Khris Davis.
Tickets for Death of a Salesman are now on sale through January 15, 2023.
Steven Chaikelson is also on the faculty of the Theatre Program at Barnard College, where he teaches History and Practice of Producing, and at Columbia Law School, where he has been teaching the Seminar in Law & Theatre for more than 20 years. Steven is the first graduate of Columbia’s dual degree JD/MFA program and a New York State Bar member. He is a co-author of Theatre Law: Cases and Materials, the first ever law school textbook devoted explicitly to theatre law, and a contributor to the theatre volume of Entertainment Industry Contracts, published by LexisNexis. Chaikelson has managed and produced theatrical productions on and off Broadway and across the United States. His Broadway theatre management credits include Elaine Stritch At Liberty, 2002; George Gershwin Alone, 2001; A Moon for the Misbegotten, 2000; The Price, 1999–2000; Death of a Salesman (Broadway and Showtime productions, starring Brian Dennehy), 1999; Fool Moon, 1995 and 1998; Freak, 1998; Julia Sweeney’s God Said Ha!, 1996.
