The good old days
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 5, 2000 9:00 p.m.
 Illustration by JASON CHEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff
By Barbara McGuire
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Willy Loman thought he could live the American Dream ““ the
ideal that anyone, no matter what stature, race or gender, can
accomplish anything in life.
A traveling salesman and the main character in Arthur
Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” Loman viewed the
American Dream as something to hold onto, to strive for, to look
forward to, and to believe in. But when the dream and its false
realities were obliterated, Loman didn’t know what to do.
In the Ahmanson’s new production of “Death of
Salesman,” Loman, played by Brian Dennehy, and his family are
what can be considered the “all-American” family. He
has two sons, Biff and Happy, played by Ron Eldard and Ted Koch,
and a loving wife, Linda, played by Elizabeth Franz.
As a young family, the Lomans were content. Willy was a
successful traveling salesman and his two sons, Biff and Happy,
loved him. Biff was the star quarterback of his high school
football team and had three colleges already scouting him. Happy,
on the other hand, lived in his brother’s shadow, never
really being recognized by his father ““ but like his
nickname, he was happy nonetheless.
The play, however, takes place quite a few years later. When
Willy is 60 years old and is a failing salesman who has to borrow
$50 from his neighbor every week just to get by. The audience
learns of the family’s good old days through flashbacks that
Willy begins having when Biff returns home from the West.
 Ahmanson Theatre Brian Dennehy and
Elizabeth Franz reprise their Tony Award-winning
roles in the 50th anniversary production of Arthur Miller’s "Death
of the Salesman." Biff never graduated from high school, never
ended up going to college and has freeloaded around since he left
home. He jumps from job to job, which is difficult for Willy to
deal with because of his idealization of the American Dream. Willy
wants his eldest son to become a success in life, making good
money.
When Biff comes home, Willy can’t stand what he’s
turned into, in part because he knows he is partially to blame. A
series of almost psychotic episodes in which Willy relives the good
and the bad moments of his past follows.
Dennehy, a Tony Award-winner for his performance as Willy, is
nothing less than intense. His intonations, his facial expressions
and his hunched-over, exhausted body language all speak the
hopelessness and tragedy of Willy’s story. Franz, also a Tony
Award-winner, is equally spellbinding.
By the end of the play, not only are the characters tired of the
emotional roller coaster they are on, but the audience members feel
the exhaustion as well.
The performances are all equally striking. The audience feels
hate when Biff gets angry at his father for not letting him ever
finish a sentence, and sorrow for Linda as she is constantly
playing referee between her two sons and her husband.
 Ahmanson Theatre Ron Eldard (left) and
Brian Dennehy star in "Death of a Salesman," which
is playing at the Ahmanson Theatre Performing Arts Center in
downtown Los Angeles through Nov. 5.
The set, like the acting, is one-of-a-kind. With multiple rooms
which are turned and moved on and off the stage, the audience is
taken from the kitchen to a local restaurant in seconds.
Directed by Robert Falls, also a Tony Award-winner for this
show, this performance of “Death of a Salesman” marks
the 50th anniversary of the play’s production. This was
Miller’s third play, written when his was only 33 years old
and has since changed the course of American theater. It was the
first of its kind and remains a unique classic.
“Death of a Salesman” has also won the Tony Award
for Best Revival of a Drama and it won Miller a Pulitzer Prize, a
Tony Award and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award when it was
first written. It is an amazing tale of a man’s endless
struggle up the social ladder, only to eventually fall.
Though a dark ending may prove hopeless, the irony of the tale
lies in that, even in his darkest hour, Willy still can’t
give up his grasp on the American dream and neither will the
audience after seeing this play.
By the end, it’s uncertain what is real and what can be
believed. For Willy, it was always the American Dream. He believed
in it so much that even his own family began to lie to each other
and to themselves.
Willy turns out to not be the only “fool” who
believes in this ideal of American society, and in the end, he
isn’t the only one who is going to be let down.
THEATER: “Death of a Salesman” is playing at the
Ahmanson Theatre in downtown Los Angeles through Nov. 5. For ticket
pricing, show dates and time and information, call (213) 628-2772
or go to www.TaperAhmanson.com.
