Nathan Lane, Laurie Metcalf, and Christopher Abbott lead a stellar cast.

Death of a Salesman review: The timely Broadway revival feels as urgent as ever

Nathan Lane, Laurie Metcalf, and Christopher Abbott lead a stellar cast.

By Dalton Ross

Dalton Ross is a writer and editor with over 25 years experience covering TV and the entertainment industry. *Survivor* is kind of his thing.

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April 9, 2026 10:00 p.m. ET

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Laurie Metcalf and Nathan Lane in 'Death of a Salesman'. Credit:

You are forgiven if feeling confused upon entering New York City’s Winter Garden Theatre to see the latest revival of *Death of a Salesman*. Instead of seeing the interior of a modest Brooklyn house waiting for you on the stage, scenic designer Chloe Lamford has given us something else completely. It looks like the inside of a warehouse with a huge metal grate on the back wall, big enough to drive a delivery truck or car through when opened. (Not a coincidence, as we soon learn.)

But look closer. Tiles are missing on the wall and columns. Dust is all over the floor. A single metal table with a few stray chairs and benches strewn about. Industrial fluorescent tube lighting that may or may not work hangs from the ceiling. This place is well past its prime. It’s in disrepair. Possibly past the point of saving. Welcome to the home — and psyche — of Willy Loman.

The newest Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s storied play (directed by Joe Mantello) has lost none of its power in the tale of a man fighting the demons of his past while also struggling with the dwindling conditions of his present and the limited prospects for the future. And the material is only heightened by a powerhouse cast at the top of their game.

Jake Silbermann and Nathan Lane in 'Death of a Salesman'.

Nathan Lane is simply brilliant in the harrowing role of Willy, a salesman whose best days are well behind him. Willy’s struggles at work (where he is no longer even pulling a salary and is earning what little he has straight off commission) are exacerbated by a painful descent into dementia — causing him to bounce back and forth between the present and the past. Lane is masterful and does not miss a beat, alternating between reliving the past promise of his son Biff’s football prowess and his own current diminished state and strained relationship with his would-be golden boy.

And Christopher Abbott is absolutely mesmerizing playing the adult version of that would-be golden boy (Joaquin Consuelos portrays the teenage version of Biff). Abbott has already proven he can take on a damaged New Yorker, wowing audiences in a 2023 Off-Broadway revival of *Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.* But while that character was a walking rageaholic, his Biff is a more complex ball of conflicting impulses and influences. It all comes to a head in a pivotal Act Two scene between father and son that allows the actor to deftly paint with multiple brushes at the same time. (The intensity of that scene alone will likely land Abbott his first Tony award come June.)

Christopher Abbott, Ben Ahlers, Laurie Metcalf, Nathan Lane in 'Death of a Salesman'.

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To say the Loman family dynamics are complicated would be an understatement, with characters at turns defending and attacking each other. Which leaves Willy’s devoted wife Linda attempting to single-handedly hold the entire thing together. Laurie Metcalf is a force of helpless nature in the role, fiercely defending her declining spouse. She is, quite sadly, the only one who sees the perma-boasting Willy as he wants to be seen, or at least how she feels he *deserves* to be seen.

It would be easy for Ben Ahlers to get lost amongst all that other talent as Biff’s younger brother Happy, but *The Gilded Age* star wins the crowd over much in the same way he wins women over on stage with his affable charm, even as his character pursues a similar career path to the one that chewed up his father and spit him out.

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Miller’s play (originally staged in 1949) has often been called timeless for its warped vision of the American Dream, but it is more timely than ever in the year 2026. The way Willy eagerly brags about Biff’s success on the gridiron only to wreak disappointment over his son’s lack of present-day status is like every modern-day sports-obsessed parent living vicariously through their travel soccer-playing offspring. The commentary on corporate America is even more stark.

Laurie Metcalf, Christopher Abbott, and Ben Ahlers in 'Death of a Salesman'.

The *New York Times *recently ran a headline about a company set to do $1.8 billion in sales in 2026, and yet, thanks to A.I., it has only two employees — the founder and his brother. Go to your local supermarket, Target, or CVS, and where once a human would ring you up, now it is a machine. Even scores of recent students who majored in computer science under the assumption that it was their ticket to a lifetime of steady work now find themselves having no work at all. Meanwhile, older employees feel constantly at risk of being put out to pasture as the rise of cheaper and/or automated labor options become available.

“You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away,” Willy famously pleads at one point to his much-younger boss, who is moments away from firing him. “A man is not a piece of fruit!”

In between Miller’s prescient original text and the stellar performances on the stage, there is certainly a lot here for audiences to chew on… long after they have filed out of the theater. **Grade: A**

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