PLAY OF THE DAY! Today's Play: DEATH OF A SALESMAN by Arthur Miller

During this time when productions all over the world have been put on pause, we are coming together to celebrate plays that have left their mark on theater history.

This week we will be focusing on the plays of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Arthur Miller.

Today's play, Death of a Salesman!

Death of a Salesman debuted on Broadway in 1949 and won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century. The original Broadway production starred Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, Howard Smith as Charley and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. It won the Tony Award for Best Play, Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Arthur Kennedy), Best Scenic Design (Jo Mielziner), Producer (Dramatic), Author (Arthur Miller), and Director (Elia Kazan).

It has been revived on Broadway four times: in 1975 starring George C. Scott as Willy, in 1984 starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy, in 1999 with Brian Dennehy as Willy, and in 2012 with Philip Seymour Hoffman as Willy. Death of a Salesman has won three Tony Awards for Best Revival.

Antony Sher played Willy Loman in the first Royal Shakespeare Company production of the play in 2015. This production was directed by Gregory Doran and transferred to London's West End in the summer of 2015.

Sharon D. Clarke and Wendell Pierce starred in Death of a Salesman at the Piccadilly Theatre in London which opened in 2019 and ran through the beginning of January 2020.

There have been many filmed versions of Death of a Salesman. A 1951 film adaptation was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Fredric March), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Kevin McCarthy), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Mildred Dunnock), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

A 1966 CBS version starred Lee J. Cobb, Gene Wilder, Mildred Dunnock, James Farentino, Karen Steele, and George Segal and was directed by Alex Segal. A 1966 BBC production starred Rod Steiger, Betsy Blair, Tony Bill, Brian Davies, and Joss Ackland, and was directed by Alan Cooke.

A 1985 version starred Dustin Hoffman, Kate Reid, John Malkovich, Stephen Lang, and Charles Durning and was directed by Volker Schlöndorff.