Under the balanced direction of Michael Rudman, this revival is an exceptional ensemble effort, What's more, the star has not turned ''Death of a Salesman'' into a vehicle. Hoffman's follow- through falls short of his characterization - it takes a good while to accept him as 63 years old - we're riveted by the wasted vitality of his small Willy, a man full of fight forĪll the wrong battles. Willy rides to suicide, as he rode through life, on the foolish, empty pride of ''a smile and a shoeshine.''Įven when Mr. His bouncy final exit is theĭeath of a salesman, all right. Hoffman's Willy becomes a harrowing American everyman.
And by staking no claim to the stature of a tragic hero, Mr. Hoffman is not playing a larger-than-life protagonist but the small man described in the script - the ''little boat looking for a harbor,'' the eternally adolescentĪmerican male who goes to the grave without ever learning who he is. In undertaking one of our theater's classic roles, this daring actor has pursued his ownīrilliant conception of the character. To reconcile these sides of Willy - the brave fighter and the whipped child - you really have no choice but to see what Mr. The price quoted by Biff may, if anything, be too high. Hoffman rants, looking and sounding so small that we fear The actor sitting in the straightback chair of his kitchen, crying out in rage to his elder son, Biff. Hoffman's Willy has collapsed to the floor of a Broadway steakhouse, mewling and shrieking like an abandoned baby. His final exit - and with what has come before? Earlier, Mr. But how does one square that feisty image with what will come after His fist is raised and his face is cocked defiantly upwards, so that his rimless spectacles glint in the Brooklyn moonlight. S Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's ''Death of a Salesman,'' Dustin Hoffman doesn't trudge heavily Hoffman, 'Death of Salesman' By FRANK RICH
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