There are nights in the life of a theater reviewer when you say to yourself, “I’m so lucky to be here doing this!” A night at Theater J with Robert Prosky co-starring with his sons Andrew and John in Arthur Miller’s “The Price” is one such time. There is a magic that spreads out from the stage and envelops the hall in a warmth that you can almost feel whenever Prosky the elder is on stage.

You don’t have to be a reviewer to experience this magic. Just get yourself a ticket. At the box office they run between $15 and $50. At times you can even get them at half price at TICKETplace on Seventh Street NW or on the TICKETplace website.

Don’t worry about where you are going to sit – there aren’t really any bad seats in Theater J’s home – the 240-seat Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater in the DC Jewish Community Center on 16th Street NW.

What will you see? Well, first of all, it is a play by Arthur Miller, one of the great playwrights of the American stage. He won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1949 for “Death of a Salesman.” That play also brought him one of the three Tony Awards he won. The other two were for “The Crucible” and “All My Sons.” Each of these, and most of the other nine plays he had produced on Broadway between 1944 and 2000, was marked by seriousness of purpose, impeccable dramatic structuring and characters that ring true as real people.

“The Price” was first produced in 1968. It is a family values play in the purest sense. A pair of estranged brothers reunite in the attic of their boyhood home to negotiate the sale of their late parents’ furniture before the building is demolished. When it opened on Broadway it was well enough received to run for over a year. It hasn’t remained in the limelight, however. In most cities across the country, you will have more opportunities to see his Tony winners than this play. But here in Washington there is a special reason it has been revived twice. That reason is Robert Prosky.

Prosky is one of the Washington theater community treasures who also happens to have a national and even worldwide reputation as an actor. While the bulk of his career has been spent here – especially the years during which he appeared in more than a hundred plays at Arena Stage – Broadway and Hollywood beckoned as well.

He has twice been nominated for Tony Awards for Best Actor on Broadway. Once for creating the role of the tragic real estate salesman Shelly Levine in David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” and again for the Soviet diplomat in Lee Blessing’s “A Walk In The Woods.” He received more than a Tony Award nomination when he played Shelly Levine – he was drawn by the caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, which is such a status symbol in the acting profession.

He has appeared in almost 40 movies, but the role that made his face famous around the world was one that was for the smaller screen. He was police sergeant Stan Jablonski on television’s “Hill Street Blues.”

While he spends a lot of time away from Washington, Capitol Hill has remained his home base since his first role at Arena Stage in “Front Page” in 1958. In 1994 he first played the role of Gregory Solomon, the crusty curmudgeon of a used furniture dealer who stirs things up – memories and emotions – in “The Price” at Arena Stage. He won the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor for his work.

I interviewed him for a profile in The Hill Rag a few years ago, and I vividly recall him telling me that he takes the most pride as an actor in “creating another human being (not just a character) out of myself for each role.” That is precisely what he does with the role in “The Price,” create a thoroughly believable person. He may do this with every one of his roles. Surely he tries to. But with Gregory Solomon, he’s blessed with a role that benefits from and blends with his own on-stage persona, creating something extraordinary.

This particular production, however, has something else extraordinary going for it. The roles of the brothers who have the furniture to sell are played by real-life brothers Andrew and John Prosky – two of the three boys that Robert and his wife Ida raised here on Capitol Hill.

Andrew is now a New York-based actor working in regional theaters all around the country. John is a Los Angeles-based actor who is a member of Anteaus, LA’s classical theater ensemble, and is busy in movies and television dramatic series (“Medium,” “ER,” “Judging Amy” and “Grey’s Anatomy” to name just a few.)

Together, the Prosky troika performed this play at the Cape May Stage in New Jersey in the summer of 2006, in part because that is a theater where Andrew performs frequently and also because Robert and Ida have their summer house nearby. Now they are doing it at Theater J after a two-month run at the oldest continuously operating theater in the country – Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre.

The production is a tasteful treatment of a well-constructed play raising solid issues of familial responsibility, loyalty and relationships. It plays out on a highly detailed set of a packed attic with furniture, coats and the entire miscellany a family collects over the years. Dominating it all is a harp, an instrument that the brothers’ mother had played in her prime. It brings back memories for both the brothers.

John Prosky has the smaller role, that of the older brother who doesn’t make his entrance until the play is almost half over. Once on the scene, however, he heats up the emotional level of the production considerably.

Andrew Prosky has the largest part, that of the younger son who conducts the negotiations for the sale of their parent’s old furniture with the used furniture dealer that Robert Prosky plays. Andrew is really quite marvelous in the role, showing the characters’ complexity with a subtle touch.

But it is clearly Robert Prosky’s performance that will stay in your mind – and your heart – for a long, long time. His combination of humor, humanity and sagacity is a delight. Get yourself a ticket before the run ends on April 18.

More Miller
Arena Stage Presents Two More
by Brad Hathaway

While Robert Prosky and his sons perform Arthur Miller’s “The Price” at Theater J, Arena Stage mounts two of Miller’s other plays in repertory in their temporary facility in Crystal City. These productions feature impressive casting choices as well. Millers’ Pulitzer Prize tragedy, “Death of a Salesman” stars Rick Foucheux as the salesman who believes he can be a success “riding on a smile and a shoeshine” and Nancy Robinette as his wife who ends up pleading that “attention must be paid such a man” at his funeral. Both Foucheux and Robinette qualify as members of the select group that includes Robert Prosky – treasures of the Washington theater community – and their teaming for “Death of a Salesman” has been highly anticipated.

Playing a revolving schedule with that production will be Millers’ “A View from the Bridge” which may not be as well known but which hits chords particularly appropriate in light of current political developments. The play deals with a longshoreman’s family in Brooklyn rocked by the arrival of family members who today would be referred to as “illegal aliens.” Delaney Williams stars as the longshoreman. He’s a native Washingtonian who has become well known for his recurring role in HBO Television’s series “The Wire.” So here’s another member of the Washington theater community known for a recurring role of a police sergeant on television staring in an Arthur Miller play. Ironically, Robert Prosky starred in the Broadway revival of “A View from the Bridge” in 1983.

To purchase tickets to “The Price” at Theater J, call 1-800-494-8497 or log on to www.washingtondcjcc.org/center-for-arts/theater-j. To purchase tickets to either “Death of a Salesman” or “A View from the Bridge” at Arena Stage’s Crystal City facility, call 202-488-3300 or log on to www.arenastage.org.

Brad Hathaway is the editor/reviewer for Potomac Stages, a website and e-mail service covering theater in Washington, Maryland and Virginia (www.PotomacStages.com). He has covered theater for Theatre.Com, Musical Stages Online, The Connection Newspapers and such magazines as Show Music, The Sondheim Review and American Theatre. He and his wife live on Capitol Hill. He can be reached by email at Brad@PotomacStages.com.