The three stops are a kind of compromise between Dennehy and the producers, who, he says, wanted a big 30-city tour. It's one thing when you're 45 years old and you're unattached. . . . I have young kids. Willy Loman is an old-fashioned salesman who lives on the road, lugging his heavy product suitcases from place to place. He's well-liked, but his world is changing, and Willy cannot.
Sales are few and far between.
He's a dinosaur facing extinction. Asked how he approached the role, Dennehy says you do it the same way you do everything. You start working on it, reading it, rehearsing it. The tricky thing about Willy, he says, is to avoid thinking him through too much. His is an instinctive life.