REVIEW: The Price, Marylebone Theatre

Director Jonathan Munby has told everyone that he believes the role of Gregory Solomon in Arthur Miller’s The Price could have been written for its star, Henry Goodman. (Previous actors in the role have been David Suchet in London and Danny de Vito in New York).

And is certainly true that Goodman lights up the Marylebone Theatre stage, with his capering, impish portrait of an 89-year-old used furniture dealer – part Fagin, part Falstaff, part Puck. And definitely completely Jewish, with numerous Yiddish interjections which I am almost sure Miller did not write.

But oy… the longeurs before Goodman even arrives into the action; and oy again while he briefly scuttles off-stage, leaving it for a tormented dialogue between the brothers from whom Solomon is apparently buying the enormous amounts of used furniture, in their late father’s New York apartment.

Get The Jewish News Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

The Price under discussion is many things: it is variously the sum of money which Victor Franz, one of the two brothers, hopes Solomon will pay for all the goods. Or it is a more inflated sum, to be achieved by a dodgy-sounding tax deal, proposed by Victor’s professionally successful surgeon brother, Walter, (John Hopkins) and longed-for by Victor’s whining wife, Esther (Faye Castelow).

Or perhaps, as the second act shows more clearly than the first, it is the price paid by police officer Victor (Elliot Cowan) in foregoing further education in order to look after the brothers’ father, who lost almost all his money in the Wall Street crash of 1929. It’s hard to tell who is the more buttoned-up and constrained between Victor and Walter, who have been estranged for 16 years before their meeting.

More in Entertainment

June 11, 2026

Jonah Platt didn’t set out to become a Jewish advocate – he just refused to be quiet

By Hannah Litman

June 10, 2026

Mel Brooks: The first 100 years

By Brigit Grant

June 10, 2026

REVIEW: How to Make a Mess, Upstairs at The Gatehouse

By Jenni Frazer

Helpfully, the creatives have provided a useful chart in the programme, showing monetary values between 1938, when the brothers began to shoulder the financial burden of their father, 1968, when the play is set, and today. It is useful to understand what things cost, in order to judge who is being skinflint-like and who is being generous.

Jon Bausor’s magnificent set, stuffed to the gills with mountains of gigantic wardrobes, and a clapped-out harp which actually plays (not literally) a part in the action, is almost a fifth actor in the production. The sale is supposedly taking place in the attic of the family home, in a building due to be demolished shortly. The cast enters the attic via a scary-looking rickety narrow staircase and my immediate thought was how on earth any of the furniture could ever be removed in real life — only by loading things on to cranes and lowering them out of the windows could this be done.

A press night audience, many unfamiliar with the play but avid Henry Goodman fans, appeared confused at the long periods of Goodman-free interaction on stage. At times, I confess I was so irritated with the arguments between the brothers (with Victor’s wife Esther chipping in with shrill shrieks) that I longed for one or the other to fall down the staircase.

Goodman, however, is having a high old time as Gregory Solomon, teasing the brothers, carefully peeling and eating a hard-boiled egg he produces from his briefcase, boasting of his long life and many achievements, even producing a tattered record of his release from the British Navy to support his many improbable claims. If, as has been reported elsewhere, this is his swansong, it is a fine aria on which to depart.

The Price runs at Marylebone Theatre until 7 June 2026. marylebonetheatre.com

Read more about The Price here.