Nathan Lane is back on Broadway in Death of a Salesman, and the part has become personal enough that he says he has finally reached the age to play Willy Loman. The 70-year-old actor is performing the Arthur Miller classic at the Winter Garden Theatre and doing eight shows a week.
Lane said the role leaves him just a 10-minute intermission to reset. “It’s, like, 10 minutes. I pee, I have a cup of tea, I put the jacket back on and I go out and fight my way to the death,” he said. He added that he has not “keeled over” while handling the schedule, but said the work is demanding enough that “nobody understands” unless they are doing it themselves.
What gives the production extra weight is the way Lane talks about arriving here after five decades in the business. He said, “It’s taken this long to feel worthy of doing it,” a comment that lands differently from an actor whose earlier work ranges from the Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls in 1992 to The Birdcage, The Producers, 30 Rock and Sex and the City. Lane also recalled watching Lee J Cobb in a 1966 televised broadcast of Death of a Salesman when other children were watching Gilligan’s Island, saying he was drawn instead to Miller’s indictment of capitalism.
That memory ties the current run to a more painful family history. Lane said that a year later his father “essentially committed suicide by drinking himself to death,” a detail that helps explain why Miller’s play has stayed with him for so long. Death of a Salesman, written in 1949, has long been treated as one of the hardest roles in American theater, with even highly regarded actors such as Dustin Hoffman and Philip Seymour Hoffman facing the strain of it.
The production also marks a reunion of Lane, director Joe Mantello and producer Scott Rudin. Rudin is returning to Broadway after five years away following allegations of bullying colleagues, giving the revival a layer of scrutiny that sits alongside the artistic stakes. For Lane, though, the answer to why now is simpler than the industry backdrop around him: after a career that has crossed stage and screen, he says he has finally grown into Willy Loman, and he is proving it eight performances a week.
