It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the U.S. government blacklisted accused communists.
Starring Ben Whishaw as John Proctor, Tony winner Sophie Okonedo as his wife Elizabeth Proctor, Saoirse Ronan as Abigail Williams, and Ciaran Hinds as Deputy-Governor Danforth.
The production will be directed by Ivo van Hove, and will have scenic and lighting design by longtime van Hove collaborator Jan Versweyveld, costume design by Wojciech Dziedzic, and an original score by Philip Glass. Additional casting and design team will be announced at a later date.
...van Hove knows how to put on a good old-fashioned fire-and-brimstone spectacle, and he makes us believe it. More controversial is his decision to update the play's setting to what appears to be a private girls' school in the not-so-distant past...Gone is almost any trace of puritanical repression as he brings to the fore the lust of adolescent girls, led by Saoirse Ronan's headstrong and determined Abigail Williams. She's naked in her attraction to John Proctor, and the astonishing performance by Ben Whishaw in that role makes her desire entirely understandable. Whishaw delivers a very feral John Proctor, with something of the little-D devil in him...But at the heart of van Hove's direction is what the play is all about: how the perverse convergence of politics, greed, religion, and, yes, sex creates mass hysteria.
Van Hove's production takes place neither in the colonial era, nor in the mid-century one, but in some sort of timeless present where teenage girls wear pleated uniforms and most of the men sport beards. All of the action, public and private, judicial and domestic, plays out in the same space, a somewhat gloomy schoolroom whose chalkboard occasionally bursts into animated life.
| 1953 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1958 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 1964 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1972 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1990 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 1991 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 2002 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 2016 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
| 2019 | Off-Broadway |
Bedlam's Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
| 2023 | West End |
West End |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Bill Camp |
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Music in a Play | Philip Glass |
| 2016 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Sophie Okonedo |
| 2016 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Ben Whishaw |
| 2016 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play | Arthur Miller |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Ben Whishaw |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Jim Norton |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play (Broadway or off-Broadway) | The Crucible |
| 2016 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Play | Jan Versweyveld |
| 2016 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Bill Camp |
| 2016 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Sophie Okonedo |
| 2016 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | Arthur Miller's The Crucible |
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