In 1984, my boyfriend who is now my husband, and I went to at the Blackstone Theatre in Chicago to see the play Death of a Saleman before they brought this production to Broadway. I had wanted to see this play because Dustin Hoffman was playing the lead Willy Loman. The part of Biff was played by John Malkovich who at the time was not well known outside of Chicago. He was well known in Chicago for being a charter member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. I still have the Stagebill for this play, well I keep all the Stagebills to every play I attend. So I pulled it out to see who else was in the play who later became world famous like John Malkovich. It turns out that Linda Kozlowski played the part of Miss Forsythe. She later became world famous in 1986 playing the female lead opposite Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee. Glad I keep all my Stagebills, you never know who you see in a play that turns out to be very famous.
Anyway, I went to see Desert Stage Theatre's production of Death of a Saleman last Sunday afternoon. I told the actors afterwards, and I truly meant what I said, that they were much better cast than the production I saw with Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich. I felt each actor in this production fit their part better than the Broadway production I saw. That goes to show you how much local talent we have here in Arizona. Our community theater can put together a cast that outshines a cast of award winning actors.
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| John Malkovich & Dustin Hoffman |
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| Jimmy Shoffman, Don Crosby & Josh Kontak |
