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EXCLUSIVE: Next spring, there will be two Spider-Mans on Broadway. When Mike Nichols directs Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play revival of Death of a Salesman, The Amazing Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield will be making his Broadway debut. Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman will play the traveling salesman Willy Loman; Linda Emond will play his wife, Linda; and Garfield will play Loman’s underachieving son, Biff. Scott Rudin will produce the revival, which will open next March at the Barrymore Theatre. The other stage Spidey, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, you know all about.
The original play opened in 1949 with Lee J. Cobb in the role of Loman, and subsequent revivals featured Dustin Hoffman and Brian Dennehy. Hoffman had been expected to take the Loman role, but the surprise is Garfield. He worked with Rudin in the David Fincher-directed The Social Network, before emerging in a wide search with the role of young Peter Parker in the 3D reboot The Amazing Spider-Man, which is being directed by Marc Webb. Garfield started his career in the theater in the UK. His stage credits there include The Laramie Project and Romeo & Juliet.
This becomes the latest case in which Rudin has brought in Hollywood talent to create event theater. Those efforts range from the Tony-winning The Book of Mormon with South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and the Tony-winning revival of August Wilson’s Fences, which starred Denzel Washington and Viola Davis.
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What happened to the Sweet Bird of Youth revival with Nicole Kidman/James Franco that Rudin was bringing to Broadway this Fall?
I love Andrew Garfield but Hoffman is WAY WAY too young. Story does’t work if Willy isn’t retirement-age. Period.
Lee J. Cobb, who originated the role on Broadway, was 37. Dustin Hoffman was 48 when he won an Emmy for it. Philip Seymour Hoffman will be 44 when it opens on Broadway. This is not a problem. That’s why they call it acting.
Cobb was 37 but looked MUCH older. D. Hoffman at 48 did too. (Thanks to make-up.)
But PS Hoffman doesn’t look as old and Garfield looks 18.
PS Hoffman is an AWESOME actor though. If anyone can pull it off, he can.
(At this rate the next time they mount it it’ll be a 30-year-old Willy and a 10-year-old Biff.)
Age (does not) Matter: So, what is wrong with that??? And, what is your problem with the age of actors?
“Death of a Salesman” is about perceived failure and how one deals with that sense of loss!!!! That can happen to a 17 year-old! And, actors can portray ANY age, so what is your problem?
Let’s not forget Andrew Garfield is pushing 30.
Dusty Hoffmans version of the play was was WAYYY overacted, but still brilliant.
Seamoooore is kinda whiny voiced, and dull (droll?) but, some-bodies may care…
Recycling (even plays) is good for the planet you selfish jerks, just believe my superior opinion!!! Earth haters!! I care more than you!!! (Prius owner) Save the world and give Holly actors millions (billions?) please.
This thread is silly. The more important thing is that I would pay premium bway ticket cost to watch Andrew Garfield read the back of my box of Kashi Go Lean.
stage make-up and AWESOME acting that is Hoffman will take care of that i’m sure.
Wow! Hope I can be there .I’ve seen five productions and each was spot-on. I’m sure Hoffman will be great (he usually is) but I wonder if he can be as self-absorbed, grandiose, pathetic and heartbreaking as the magnificent Brian Dennehy. (Dustin H. was fantastic as well. Of course, Cobb was the quintessential Willy; to many of us he WAS WL.) But Dennehy, who’s built like a refrigerator, is my favorite: you saw a huge, weak man; ironic in his very being, astounding. Also, to my mind Willy has to be exceedingly charming and “fun,” pulling you into his b.s. as he has his hapless family through the years. So there needs to be some sex appeal there. Willy is dynamic and attractive, at least for a while, until you realize it’s all just a crumbling facade.
I saw the Dnnehy production and it was bar-none the best version of Willy Loman I have ever seen on stage. To watch that hulking mass just crumble until there is nothing left… man PSH has a lot to live up to. Then again if anybody has the chops its him. Can’t wait.
Totally agree about Dennehy — he was *amazing* in the role in large part for the irony you cited. He was amazing in the role.
Agreed. At 44-45, Hoffman is too young. Someone like Brian Cox would be a better choice.
This isn’t a movie of the week on the Oxygen Network. Its a play. Its the theater. Its fucking PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN. Too young? What the fuck are you talking about?
Okay, Philip, calm down, you got the part.
Actually I think George C Scott was the most incredible Willy George and Lee J Cobb of course !
I was the sound effects and music operator for a minor stage revival in 1960 and I got very accustomed to our actors. Yet, when I saw Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock perform the play for TV in 1966, I was blown away by Cobb’s performance. He displayed all the power and confidence that strong-Willy needed for his fall to be dramatic.
I didn’t realize how young he was for the Broadway debut. Willy needs to be old enough to have his two adult sons. I like Hoffman and I hope he’s a success.
I’m looking forward to it.
Who is the best Biff you eve saw? Biff really drives the play.
It is 2011 people. Salesman do not have to be retirement age to get laid off, mistreated, or have two kids of working age. They can have 33 year old play Willy. Never a better time for a this play’s message. Lunch Break Blog
Ben Turpin would be better. Hoffman blew. This Hoffman will overunderact, as previous underovered.
Need national subsidized theyater, so limeys stop cornering actual speaking roles.
Heard radio interview with Brad Pitts–didn’t know what a “POGROM” was.
Deep.
^^^^^^
GENIUS!
Already been way over done…I coulda been a contender.
STUPID.
Oh great. A new generation of dupes worships at the altar of Arthur (honest, I didn’t know he was a communist) Miller. And Mike Nichols too? Why it’s just sacramental! Let’s all snuggle up and watch while Uncle Joe lights a fire with wood from the Katyn Forest.
I guess posts like this are what life would have been like if there had been an internet in 1953.
This play makes me feel like I’m in 10th grade again ! Can’t decide if I should see it.
Saw Brian Dennehy as Willy Lohman in London ’05 with magnificent cast who made the audience weep aloud. Was the most emotional group experience I’ve ever witnessed. We all stood in the lobby afterward like we’d just attended a funeral. Everyone was daubing eyes and passing tissues around. Dennehy’s was the finest performance by an actor I’d ever seen. Brilliant.
Saw Dennehy in LD’sJ w/ Hoffman (bizarre reading of part) and uninteresting but old-fashioned mahogany (wooden) RSLeonard. Good, must say, but indicates rather.
A “pogram” against Pitts, ex-Spider man performers and other “actors” in today’s Hollywood would be welcomed.
Can’t wait to see this production. I love Philip Seymour Hoffman’s work. Great break for Garfield, and I wish him the best of luck with the role. Glad he’s choosing to artisticly balance his projects.
I have a great deal of respect for actors who are willing to move between mediums (stage, TV and film) because they’re dedicated to quality work, as opposed to just fame and a big paycheck. There are too many actors in Hollywood right now that claim they “just care about their craft”, or “only take roles that really speak to them”, blah blah blah, but stangely enough the only roles that ever “speak” to them are feature film roles with the big check attached.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with taking a paycheck role every now and then….gotta pay the bills and all, but it shouldn’t make up the entirity of your resume in my opinion
It takes more than being a Hollywood actor to be able to play in theatre. It requires real training and experience and a different talent that the bulk of Hollywood actors DO NOT HAVE! Be glad they’re sticking to films.
As far as Hoffman- he’s wrong, wrong, wrong. And after Dennehy’s performance, the play should be left alone with that triumph still part of our millieu. Do Willy in 15-20 years from now.
Dustin Hoffman was terrible in the role. Way too small. Willy has to be a really big man to make his fall so tragic. Cobb was brilliant.
I actually thought Hoffman’s stature played to the role. Was he ever that good of a salesman? Kind of a Napoleon Syndrome thing where maybe all along he was good but not great, but his extra N.S. confidence made him think he was great? And later in life, reality hit him with both age and reality that he never was what he thought (or tried to continue to believe but struggled).
Didn’t see Dennehy but wish I did. Still think Dustin Hoffman did a good job. I’ll travel to NYC for PS Hoffman’s try at it. I’m sure he will do a fantastic job.
I saw Christopher Lloyd in the Lohman role last Fall and he brought a sad humor to it I’ve never seen in any other performance. I love Phil, but I can’t yet imagine how he’d play it.
-zCos
The most authentic Willy was Frederic March in the movie, and the guy who played Biff(?) was superb. (I know it was a low-budget thing but those guys were great.)
“Self-absorbed, grandiose, pathetic and heartbreaking “,
“Willy must be a really big man — (would tall suffice?) — to make his fall so tragic!”
“The sad humor of Willy Lohman”
“Made the audience weep aloud”
“the power and confidence that strong-Willy needed for his fall”
Death of a Salesman, era 2011!
It’s irresistible to read these incognizant readers’ comments as the tragicomedy of the preeminent real-life Death of a Salesman is staged right in front of our eyes w/ the ultimate vainglorious chieftain in his marquee role of a lifetime making the whole of the country audience weep aloud!
Hoffman can play old. That’s why it’s called acting.
Loved Cobb, C Scott hated Hoffman but actually in the play the notes say he is a small birdlike man. But without question the older age of an actor playing the part adds to the pathos ,we have to believe he is at the end of this chances in life
Anyone remember that Hoffman was a theater director who was directing Death of a Salesmen in Synecdoche, New York? Ironic to all those saying Hoffman is too young because in the movie he casted a young person as Willy because he thought it amplified the tragedy…
I saw a production in Sydney, Australia in 1982 with Mel Gibson as Biff. He was very good. That was the last play he did. PSH will be wonderful. I cannot wait.
I saw a production in Sydney, Australia in 1982 with Mel Gibson as Biff. Warren Mitchell played Willy. They were both very good. That was the last play Gibson did. PSH will be wonderful. I cannot wait.