Were London Critics Impressed with Death of a Salesman?

The Tony-winning 1999 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, starring Brian Dennehy and directed by Robert Falls, has made it to the West End. The show is mostly recast with British actors, including Claire Higgins, but still features Broadway cast members Dennehy, Howard Witt who received a Tony nomination for his featured work, Steve Pickering and Allen Hamilton. Did London critics love the production, which opened at the Lyric Theatre on May 16, as much as Broadway scribes did years ago?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Benedict Nightingale of The London Times: "No wonder [Brian Dennehy's] Willy Loman, doomed salesman, won him a Tony award in New York. It is a memorable performance that builds slowly but achieves extraordinary highs. With our own Claire Higgins and Douglas Henshall giving him support, the result is a testament to the power and to the incisiveness of the play's author, the late Arthur Miller. What a remarkable play it is."

Nicholas de Jongh of The Evening Standard: "Robert Falls's ponderously slow, poorly staged production, premiered in Chicago six years ago, fails to convince me Death of a Salesman is quite the classic we all once thought it to be. It is too melodramatically loaded and sometimes psychologically trite. Yet what a racking, wrenching hold the play still takes upon an audience, thanks to Brian Dennehy's spellbinding take on the title role."

Charles Spencer of The Telegraph: "Though the show lasts considerably longer than three hours, there is not a moment when one isn't moved, gripped, and at times appalled by the sheer raging pain on stage. Not a performance rings false, not a word seems superfluous to requirements. You leave the theatre in no doubt that you have witnessed a great, possibly THE great, American tragedy."

Michael Billington of The Guardian: "This is as fine a rendering of the play as one could hope for: one that realises that the key to the play lies in the word dream… Falls recognises that the whole play is structured with the fluidity of a dream… But the strength of Falls' production also lies in its casting. Brian Dennehy plays Willy superbly as a man who has lived all his life on a level of fantasy. Dennehy is a man of titanic proportions; but what he brings out wonderfully is the contrast between the agonised, ageing Willy, forever beating his temple with his right hand, and the younger self who believed that he could smile, josh and kid his way to success… Clare Higgins also highlights the hidden strength of Willy's wife, Linda, vehemently thumping the table when telling us that 'attention must be paid.'"