A tale of two Arthur Miller plays: One nails it, one misses the moment entirely

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

When the world is topsy-turvy, the theatergoing public seeks explanations.Arthur Miller provides something better: moral intelligence.

He doesn’t tell his audience what to think but challenges them to think harder.There’s clearly a hunger right now for Miller’s work.

His plays are back in high demand in Los Angeles, New York and London.A new revival of “Death of a Salesman,” starring Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf, is in previews on Broadway.And a less starry production of Miller’s masterpiece opened last weekend at Pasadena’s A Noise Within.“All My Sons,” Miller’s breakthrough play about capitalism’s warped ethics in the guise of a domestic drama, just finished a successful run at Antaeus Theatre Company in Glendale.

And National Theatre Live will screen the recent London production, starring Bryan Cranston and Marianne Jean-Baptiste, in April and May courtesy of Boston Court Pasadena and L.A.Theatre Works.

(Late last year, I caught a screening at the Wallis of another London revival, the 2019 production starring Bill Pullman and Sally Field.)“A View From the Bridge,” a play whose revenge plot hinges on a tip to immigration authorities, could hardly be more timely.The same could just as unnervingly be said about “The Crucible,” Miller’s parable about the McCarthy witch hunts.

The play, always front of mind when power is being abused, has given rise to a modern feminist riposte, Kimberly Belflower’s thrilling “John Proctor Is the Villain,” which is coming to the Mark Taper Forum next year.Not to be missed right now is a small, exquisitely acted production of “The Price” at Pacific Resident Theatre.Miller’s 1968 play, written during the agonizing days of the Vietnam War, concerns the disposition of the remains of a once-illustrious estate.

As two estranged brothers working with an 89-year-old appraiser try to put a price on the a...