“All My Sons” Roundabout Theater Co. at the American Airlines Theater. Opened April 22, 2019. Ends June 23, 2019

Tracy Letts and Annette Bening   (photo credit: Joan Marcus)

What irony there is having productions of Arthur Miller’s excellent emotions-extracting drama “All My Sons” emerge with apparent frequency and acclaim after it was decried as a Communist play and a blatant undermining of the American business ethos. It is back again courtesy of the Roundabout Theatre Company. It remains terrific.

There is no question that the accusations and allegations have proven to be woefully  misguided both  by the passage of time and the more open debate regarding the play’s social and political point of view. Today especially it seems a good time for this probing, skillfully written play to be reassessed for what it really is: one of the more distinguished works in American dramatic literature.

Without overstating the place this drama has within the Miller canon, I believe that this production under the direction of Jack O’Brien continues to insure the play’s status and stature. Critics have pointed out the plot’s contrivances since the play opened in 1947. 

The play, however,  stands firmly and more importantly on the moral and ethical values that Miller’s characters are made to confront. Recognizing and acting upon the necessity to find a strong enough cast able to deliver the play’s many emotional peaks without losing the essential honesty of Miller’s conflicted characters, O’Brien leads the characters through Millers’ logical but terrifying conscience-stretching conflict with a splendid clarity of purpose.

The story centers on how a ruthless and reckless business decision that allowed defective cylinder heads to be delivered to the Army thereby caused the death of 21 pilots and how it affects the lives of two entwined families. Miller dramatized it in a boldly unpretentious style that appears to grow more timeless with each year.

Tracy Letts can add Joe Keller to his list of great performances (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, “The Realistic Joneses”) as the manufacturer who has not only committed perjury to avoid a jail sentence but has allowed his innocent business partner to take the rap. 

At first we are ingratiated by his lazily good-humored facade. But that begins to visibly fester as the crippling fraudulence of his act is faced, an act to which his second son fell victim. Joe has not only committed perjury to avoid a jail sentence but has allowed his business partner to take the blame.

  

Benjamin Walker is more than persuasive as Chris, the older son who has fallen in love with his brother’s fiancé even as he remains loyal and blindly supportive of his father. Watch this fine actor (“American Psycho” “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson”) as he subtly shifts gears from strength to sensitivity to disillusionment. Francesca Carpanini is winning as the conflicted fiancé who must face the combined anxieties in regard to her jailed father, her love for Chris and the disapproving presence of Mrs. Keller.

Annette Bening may be better known for her acclaimed film roles (“Bugsy” “The American President”) but her commendable stage work reaches a peak as the heartbreaking, frightened, neurotically ascribed Kate Keller who remains a shield to her tortured husband. 

Other fine performances are registered by Hampton Fluker as the enraged son of the scapegoat as well as by Nehal Joshi, Michael Hayen, Chinasa Ogbuagu, Jenny Barber, and the impressive youngster Alexander Bello as the involved neighbors.  Set designer Douglas W. Schmidt stays close enough to absolute realism with his house and backyard setting-- enhanced effectively by video and projections by Jeff Sugg. All the technical credits are first-rate as is this altogether fine production of a first-rate play.