It has to be the right season for that play, the right historical moment, the right tonality. ''The number of elements that have to go into a hit would break a computer down. Now, if you've got four empty seats, unbought, you know your time has come. When I came into the theater, it was a rare thing that you went into the theaterĪnd it was full. The theater is healthy when a play can run half or two-thirds full. It's wrong that for a show to be a hit, it has to be sold out. And I can say this now, in possession of a hit of phenomenal proportions, that it isn't ''We have shows, which isn't really the same thing. ''We have no real theater,'' he continues. After all, I haven't had a continuing relationship with a director in 25 years, no real relationship with a critic - except with Harold Clurman in a way.'' Had there been a working theater, it could have been or ''I feel I've dealt with a lot of wasting circumstances as best I could, but I've had to waste my time defending my space, so to speak. Hoffman in his celebrated new portrayal of Willy ''I don't feel I'm triumphant by any means,'' he says, speaking in the brisk, colloquial tones of a native New Yorker - tones that are echoed by Mr. Need for a national theater that would nurture and support the artist. Miller, this experience of being ''thrown back into the marketplace'' with each new production has been humiliating and unnecessary and he talks wistfully of the When ''Clock'' was later moved to Broadway, for instance, it was dismissed by the critics as sadly abortive and a pair of one-act plays, staged in 1982 at the Long Wharf Theater in Connecticut were shrugged Production of ''Salesman,'' last year's revival of ''A View From the Bridge'' and the 1980 Spoleto Festival version of ''The American Clock'' have been matched,Īlmost show for show, by equal disappointments. His recent triumphs, including the current Miller's career has traced a spectacularly uneven course, and he tends to regard his current apotheosis as another swing of the pendulum of success. He spoke of times when he considered ''swearing off'' playwriting altogether and noted, with an ironic laugh, that the rave notices received by ''Salesman'' must have succeeded in In a recent interview in his East Side apartment, No doubt this slight only serves to reinforce the playwright's own deep- seated skepticism about working in the commercial theater and the durability of his achievement. Hoffman, John Malkovich and Kate Reid, and its director, Michael Rudman, were passed Miller's dismay, its stars, including Mr. But while the show almost immediately sold out its limited run and this week receivedĪ Tony nomination for outstanding reproduction, its success has been less than total. He had quietly slipped away, leaving the actors to savor the applause by themselves.Ĭertainly the critical and popular acclaim received by the current revival of ''Salesman'' has provided Mr. The Broadhurst Theater began to resound with cries of ''Arthur, Arthur,'' and ''Author, Author,'' butĪrthur Miller was nowhere to be seen. Hoffman, stepped forward and asked the playwright to come up and take a bow. T was opening night of ''Death of a Salesman,'' and after five curtain calls, the star of the show, Dustin Arthur Miller: View of a Life By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
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