Philip Seymour Hoffman is incredible in the latest staging of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman". My initial reaction to hearing he was going to be playing the lead in this classic play is that I didn't think he was old enough. Sure enough, one of the first things I did when I got back home was double check his age, because he embodies Willy Loman so much that I completely bought him as a beat-down old man.
The entire cast was incredible, with honorable mention going to Andrew Garfield as Biff. It wasn't until a few weeks afterwards that I found out he is going to be Peter Parker in the Spiderman Reboot (yes, yes, I am behind), but I was really excited to hear it. He's a young star whose acting chops measure up to his good-looks for sure.
But of course, Andrew Garfield wasn't the one I was super exited to be within yards of...it was my boy Fran Kanz (Bernard) aka the geeky scientist from Dollhouse. He definitely proved that he has more than just the dorky scientist ace up his sleeve (although I'd be OK with just that).
Watching this play made me angry that they make you read this as part of the high-school curriculum. At that stage in life, there is just no way you have the perspective to be able to appreciate this masterpiece (and this is from me as a young adult, I have no doubt that the years will just continue to expound on this). I don't care what you thought of this play in the past, this is definitely a must-see before it closes on June 2nd.
