The pair became friends before the playwright\u2019s death in 2005, when, in 1997, LaPaglia starred in A View from the Bridge<\/em> on Broadway, a role that earned him a Tony Award.<\/p>\n Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman was Anthony LaPaglia\u2019s first theatre role in more than 10 years.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Jeff Busby<\/cite><\/p>\n The new production, directed by Neil Armfield and starring LaPaglia, Alison Whyte, and Josh Helman, will tour to the Theatre Royal in Sydney in May.<\/p>\n It opened in Melbourne in September to glowing reviews, with LaPaglia performing as Willy Loman, the depressed salesman of the title. The action played out against a sparse set, a sports stand at Ebbets Field, the site of one of Willy\u2019s favourite memories.<\/p>\n \u201cI talked to him [Miller] about it a fair bit back in the day,\u201d says LaPaglia. \u201cHe said he always liked the play, but he always hated that it ended up being in a proscenium type of setting \u2013 kitchen table, chairs, all that kind of thing.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had a really amazing set design, but they couldn\u2019t practically build it; it was on three different levels. By creating the sports stand at Ebbets Field, I think that\u2019s the closest it\u2019s come to being how Arthur would have liked it to have been.\u201d<\/p>\n The Melbourne run was the first time LaPaglia, best known for screen roles including Looking for Alibrandi<\/em> and Holding the Man<\/em>, had stepped on stage in more than 10 years. It was also LaPaglia\u2019s first professional theatre role in Australia; the Adelaide-born actor performed in a community theatre production of John van Druten\u2019s I Am a Camera<\/em> in Sydney in the early \u201980s, before he moved to the United States to pursue an acting career, at the age of 21.<\/p>\n LaPaglia first read Death of a Salesman<\/em> in his 20s, performed scenes as Biff and his little brother Happy in acting class, and saw it for the first time on Broadway in 1999, with Brian Dennehy in the lead role. \u201cI remember sitting in the theatre going, \u2018that\u2019s some play. I\u2019ll just chalk that up in the back of my head as something I need to do\u2019,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n But earlier this year LaPaglia was convinced he may never have the chance to play Willy Loman. \u201c[I thought] there\u2019s so many productions of it going on, who\u2019s going to want to do another one?\u201d A week later, he was offered the opportunity to lead the Australian cast. Accepting was a no-brainer, especially as the SAG actors\u2019 strike in the US limited the available screen roles.<\/p>\n Armfield (Things I Know to Be True<\/em>; The Secret River<\/em>) says that directing LaPaglia in Holding the Man<\/em> in 2015 convinced him the actor would be the perfect choice to play Willy.<\/p>\n LaPaglia and director Neil Armfield in rehearsals for Death of a Salesman.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Eugene Hyland<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cHe was able to carry such massive emotional strength and need, often with very few lines, often just his body and his face, his eyes especially,\u201d he says. \u201cWilly Loman fits him so perfectly that I just can\u2019t now imagine anyone else in the role.\u201d<\/p>\n LaPaglia is excited to bring his Willy Loman to Sydney. \u201cI\u2019m so happy we\u2019re doing it again because there wasn\u2019t a single night that I didn\u2019t go out there and think, \u2018ahh, this is fantastic. I love doing this\u2019. And you don\u2019t always think that, especially as you get older as an actor.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s beautiful about plays is it\u2019s two hours when you\u2019re not interrupted; someone\u2019s not yelling \u2018cut\u2019 and \u2018do it again\u2019. You get on a stage, and you own it, and you\u2019re always discovering something new. It\u2019s this continual process of refining it on an emotional level. I haven\u2019t had to use that muscle for such a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout the run, LaPaglia was the first person to arrive at the theatre, and the last person to leave. \u201cI missed being a theatre rat. When I\u2019m doing a play, I tend to live at them almost,\u201d he says, with a laugh, before describing his pre-show ritual: organising his chaotic dressing room, buying supplies, and taking a nap.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a terrible sleeper,\u201d he says. \u201cBut for some reason when I\u2019m doing a play that one-and-a-half hour nap before the play is just like gold. Because it\u2019s quiet. There\u2019s no phone. No one\u2019s bugging me. No one wants anything. It\u2019s just my space.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond helping his sleep deficit, the Melbourne season had a deep impact on LaPaglia: it helped him to better understand his father, with whom he had a difficult relationship until his death in 2014. He drew on parts of his father to embody Willy, a travelling salesman struggling to make a sale, whose hopes for his sons\u2019 futures border on delusion.<\/p>\n \u201cWilly is very much like my father,\u201d he says. \u201cMy father was also a salesman. My father was also extremely verbose, and very pushy with his sons.<\/p>\n \u201cSince doing the play, I\u2019ve started thinking about him more, and coming up with a different perspective on him. As I got older, I understood where his anger and stuff came from, but I think the play helped me crystallise some of it a little more.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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