By Bob Fischbach
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Published Thursday
June 9, 2005
Given a week since opening, the cast and crew of the Beasley Theater's "Death of a Salesman" may have a stellar production on their hands by now. It was not so on opening night Friday.
The theater's namesake, John Beasley, stars as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's classic 1949 Pulitzer winner, and his talented son, Tyrone, both directs and stars as Willy's son, Happy.
Sounds like a potent combination, along with established local talents Erline Patrick as Willy's wife and Ben Gray as his brother. And it may yet be.
The spirit of Miller's characters and the play's themes were very much alive on the stage Friday, but the show felt as if it needed another week to be ready for an audience. At times actors seemed to be reaching for lines and ad-libbing to cover the gaps, resulting in repetition, awkward silences or several talking at once.
That may have caused lighting cues to be off as well, sometimes leaving speakers in the dark while a brightly lighted area stood empty.
Backstage lighting caused recurring distractions of shadows moving on the theater's back wall and on a backing flat just beyond a stage left doorway. These were not shadows we were meant to see. Uneven pacing stretched the show to about three hours.
A generous audience gave the cast a standing ovation, despite the flaws, and little wonder. The emotional impact of this timeless work's themes is immense. John Beasley has had success as an actor in a recurring role on the WB's dramatic television series "Everwood" and in featured roles in some terrific movies, such as "The Apostle," "Rudy," "The Sum of All Fears" and others.
He has shared his good fortune with his hometown, opening the John Beasley Theater & Workshop in 2001. The theater has staged many successes in its short history. This production, too, had successful and moving moments, as when Willy's son Biff ("Guy" Herman Shields Jr.) discovers his father's marital infidelity. It is the end of hero worship and the start of bitter estrangement.
John Beasley showed his full dramatic power in flashback sequences in which he confuses past and present, anguished in his search for where his life took a wrong turn. Patrick was particularly eloquent in a scene in which she shocks her sons into recognizing Willy's plight and what they owe him. Tyrone Beasley gave a consistently focused and effective performance.
Charles Galloway Sr. was a crowd favorite, providing comic relief as neighboring Uncle Charley.
"Death of a Salesman's" themes of broken dreams and disillusionment take on added resonance spoken by this mostly black cast. Given time to settle and attention to detail, this production's full potential can more than do justice to Miller's masterpiece.
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