The Playgoer: The Friday News Roundup

Custom Search

Friday, August 27, 2010

The Friday News Roundup

by Matt Roberson

- A Vermont edition of Death of a Salesman opens this week, and it features Christopher Lloyd as Willy Loman.  Lloyd playing a crazy old guy that no one wants to listen to?  I think I've seen this movie before...

- Writer Jason Zinoman begs the question, "When is a Broadway show 'a hit?'"  According to current definition, it has a lot to do with turning a profit, which even some long running shows fail to do.

- I recently had the pleasure of seeing the Mint Theatre's Wife to James Whelan for NyTheatre.com.   The story behind the play is equally interesting, as the playwright, Terese Deevy, seems to have been the victim of an artistic shakeup at Dublin's Abbey Theatre in the early 1940s.  One minute Deevy was hot, the next
minute - not.  Questions remain as to why the play went unproduced for such a long time.  According to the Mint, Deevy herself went on to live a quiet life in a small Irish town, where she was known not as a beloved writer for one of the Western hemisphere's great theaters, but as the old woman who rode her bicycle in mismatched socks. 

2 comments:

TheEsoCritic said...

Why do people think Christopher Lloyd is such a strange choice for this? I have always admired his work as an actor... yes, he has been known for one particular kind of thing, but his best work has always had a quiet sense of gravity and presence.

This is in a small regional theater, and I can totally picture him in this role. I don't know how good he will be, but I wish I could see it. I'm optimistic about his prospects and if he really shines maybe the thing will have legs and come to NYC--or at least receive a long enough extension for me to make it up there.

Anonymous said...

It was really a joke I couldn't pass up. I also like Lloyd's work, though I would never describe it as "quiet." But Willy isn't quiet, so maybe it will work. He also looks like the Willy Loman in my head - not frail, but not bulky and powerful like Brian Dennehy or Lee J. Cobb.