Christopher Abbott and Ben Ahlers Are Balancing ‘Death of a Salesman’ With Knicks Fever

Eight times a week, while Nathan Lane finishes one of the most demanding performances on Broadway—as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman—Christopher Abbott and Ben Ahlers are backstage at the Winter Garden Theatre, watching the Knicks every chance they get.

More days than not, from April to August, the two actors have been playing Biff and Happy Loman in Joe Mantello’s nine-time Tony-nominated revival of Arthur Miller’s classic American tragedy. It’s a two-hour-and-50-minute production that relies heavily on the emotional weight of its leading quartet (Laurie Metcalf plays the Loman matriarch, Linda). To get through the demanding experience, Abbott and Ahlers have found an outlet in their shared love of the New York basketball team.

“We both realized that we were pretty hardcore Knicks fans,” 29-year-old Ahlers, best known for his fan-favorite role on HBO’s The Gilded Age, told W in a joint conversation with Abbott ahead of the Tony awards. “We found that to be an easy justification to go run lines. We would just pop over to Chris’s apartment and watch the Knicks on TV, eat Chinese food, and work on the script. Now there’s a shorthand and a shared language, which we were able to take into the rehearsal room.”

The classic play was first staged in 1949, a few blocks away from the Winter Garden at the now-demolished Morosco Theater under Elia Kazan’s direction. The 2026 revival has been a critical and commercial hit, earning nine Tony nominations, including Best Revival of a Play and Best Direction. This version of Salesman is faithful to the original text, but adds in a few elements of magical realism, like the 1964 red Chevy that looms on the sparse stage for the entire play, foreshadowing Willy’s eventual death (set designer Chloe Lamford has also been nominated).

Salesman marks Ahlers’s first time on Broadway, while 40-year-old Abbott made his Broadway debut in 2011’s The House of Blue Leaves, a year before Lena Dunham’s Girls hit the air, making him a cult-favorite heartthrob for his role as Marnie’s devoted boyfriend, Charlie. (In the fall, Abbott will portray another archetypal brother of American literature as Adam Trask in Netflix’s East of Eden adaptation opposite Florence Pugh.)

“Ben’s done plays before, but never for as long a run as this one,” Abbott told W. “This will be the longest run I’ll have done, [too].” Abbott’s advice to Ahlers was to keep in mind what happens off-stage as much as on: “We have to show up and do our job, but just remember that what you’re going to take home when this is said and done is the memories of the in-between.”

Those memories will include, at the time of the interview, at least seven Knicks home games and the ferociously tight bond that both actors formed with their on-stage parents, Lane and Metcalf. As brothers Biff and Happy, Abbott and Ahlers embody the dreams and disappointments of their tormented father. Abbott, who has earned his first Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor for his role as prodigal son Biff, plays the role with a tender edge. The entitled former football star is a difficult character to make sympathetic, but Abbott does it masterfully. As the reckless and selfish but charming Happy, Ahlers adds a comedic spark to the emotionally heavy work.

“When the themes are quite heavy and dark like this one, the play can really weigh on me and my nervous system,” Ahlers said. “It’s a quick slip to an isolated depression, and all of us are pretty consciously working to keep that ball up of our own levity and joy. Whether it’s our little Loman family reunion at the beginning of the show, or the Knicks playing at intermission, it allows us to create a balance and not let the play take over the psyche.”

For both actors, the overwhelming response to the show feels like an encouraging sign of the public’s continued hunger for the arts, even when conventional wisdom suggests otherwise. “It’s reassuring that in 2026 people are still grabbing onto a play like this, which could be considered somewhat dated and is, at times, a melodrama,” Abbott said. “I can totally understand people just wanting to be ‘entertained’ and have a distraction of an experience right now. I give audiences a lot of credit for allowing themselves to be moved here.”

Indeed, by the final scenes of the packed evening I attended, the thick tension in the theater was cut only by a chorus of sniffles. “We’re told that people have such bad attention spans, but audiences are far more willing to meet you where you’re at if you treat them with respect,” Ahlers added.

And while they work on that, they’ll have the emotional support of the Knicks, now playing in the finals for the first time in 27 years. Abbott and Ahlers are hoping to attend Game 3 on Monday—it’s their one night a week off, after all.