NEW YORK CITY — Laurie Metcalf is preparing to play Linda Loman opposite Nathan Lane's Willy Loman in a Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, scheduled to move into the Winter Garden Theatre in February. Four weeks into rehearsals in New York, the cast led by Lane was still refining the Loman family's implosion under director Joe Mantello.

The production also features Christopher Abbott and Ben Ahlers as Biff and Happy, the Loman sons. Producer Scott Rudin, who in 2021 stepped back from his career following allegations that he had bullied his staff, attended a rehearsal at Lincoln Center, where the cast underwent mandatory harassment training that morning. Mantello replaced the naturalistic kitchen-sink set with a plywood box standing in for a red 1964 Chevy. A prop seed bag belonging to Lane burst during rehearsal, spilling seeds across the stage and causing the cast to laugh. "I'm hoping to have an entire salad come the spring!" Lane bellowed.

Metcalf, a charter member of Steppenwolf Theatre Company, has been known to television audiences since the 1980s as Aunt Jackie in the sitcom Roseanne. She won back-to-back Tony Awards in 2017 and 2018 for A Doll's House, Part 2 and Three Tall Women, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Lady Bird. She has been dubbed the new First Lady of American Theatre, a moniker once given to Helen Hayes.

Metcalf read Death of a Salesman in high school and avoided seeing a production to prevent another performance from influencing her interpretation. She also avoided seeing productions of other roles she hoped to play later, including Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Mary Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night. Her script consisted of hole-punched pages with penciled notes in the margins. While Linda Loman has traditionally been played as a soft, doting figure blinded by admiration for her husband, Metcalf's interpretation portrays her as shrewd and knowledgeable about the family's finances.

"The thing I remember is her being described as a doormat," Metcalf said. She questioned specific stage directions during rehearsal. "What if I don't 'tremble with sorrow and joy,' which is a stage direction?" she said. "I didn't even want to come out carrying the laundry basket."

Lane approached Metcalf about joining the revival after seeing her in a 2015 production of All My Sons in East Hampton. "I knew that she would find this strength and fierce protectiveness toward Willy, and that it wouldn't be sentimental in any way," he said.

At Lincoln Center, Metcalf wore jeans and a worn Three Tall Women hoodie. "Her wardrobe is made up of merch from shows she's done," Mantello observed. "What Laurie has found is that this woman is not fragile. In fact, she's formidable. She's not there to be deferential to Willy," he said.