‘Death of a Salesman’ Director Joe Mantello on Casting Nathan Lane as Willy Loman and Working With Scott Rudin: ‘I Believe in Second Chances’

By Brent Lang

Brent Lang

Executive Editor

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Willy Loman — washed up, beaten down and trying to ride a little longer on a smile and a shoeshine before he’s kicked to the curb — has been a staple of Broadway since Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” first electrified audiences in 1949 with its searing portrait of uncaring capitalism. There have been seven productions in all, offering up very different takes on the titular salesman — from volcanic (Brian Dennehy, George C. Scott), to intensely deranged (Lee J. Cobb), to mournful (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Wendell Pierce), to self-deluded and scrappy (Dustin Hoffman).

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