It has been adapted for the cinema on ten occasions, including a 1951 version by screenwriter Stanley Roberts, starring Fredric March. Since its premiere, the play has been revived on Broadway five times, winning three Tony Awards for Best Revival. The play was selected as one of the best plays of 1948–1949, with an excerpted version published in The Burns Mantle Best Plays of 1948–1949. It is considered by some critics to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century. It won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. The play addresses a variety of themes, such as the American Dream, the anatomy of truth, and infidelity. It is a two-act tragedy set in late 1940s Brooklyn told through a montage of memories, dreams, and arguments of the protagonist Willy Loman, a travelling salesman who is despondent with his life and appears to be slipping into senility.
The play premiered on Broadway in February 1949, running for 742 performances. Late 1940s Willy Loman's house New York City and Barnaby River Bostonĭeath of a Salesman is a 1949 stage play written by American playwright Arthur Miller.
