Nathan Lane

And they were wondering who might play Hickey if they did that.

And I thought, aha,

That would really shake things up.

And so I contacted Bob Falls and I said, if you're really thinking about doing Iceman, again, I would love to be considered for the role of Hickey and here's why.

The audience feels the same way the guys in the bar feel about Hickey, about me.

which is he's here to show us a good time.

He's the life of the party.

And then we pulled the rug out from under them.

And I think that's an interesting dynamic.

So I went to Chicago.

I had six weeks of rehearsal.

And then you have –

And because it's a regional theater, you only have nine performances and you open.

And so because Danahy and I were doing this, people showed up like from New York, like Charles Isherwood, who drove me to this in the first place.

So there was a lot of pressure on me.

And then, so fortunately, it was very well received.

It was sold out.

The happy ending is it worked.

Eventually, I did shift the perception just a little, just enough, so that by the time I got to Angels in America and then Salesman, it wasn't such a shock to people.

Oh, Nathan Lane is doing Death of a Salesman.