Arthur Miller's "The Price" Stars Tony Sholub, Mark Ruffalo & Danny DeVito-Still Don't Go

Prolific, Pulitizer Prize winning playwright Arthur Miller doesn't always get it right.  "The Price" is on Broadway with an amazing cast which also includes Tony winner Jessica Hect.  But this combined star power cannot revitalize this blast from the past.  Miller's play 1st premiered on B'wy in 1968.  This production marks its 4th revival.   "The Price" was twice nominated for Tony Awards but this is a slice & dice mess of family drama and dated comedic schtick.  Credit Danny DeVito with delivering disarming charm in his B'wy debut.  Fellow castmates:  Sholub, Ruffalo & Hecht are worth their weight in gold.  The mishmash of a humorous Act I & melodramatic, convuluted Act II lead to a confusing mess.  Gregory Solomon (an appealing Danny DeVito) plays an estate appraiser.  He is contacted by Victor Franz (an earnest Mark Ruffalo) to estimate the value for the detritus covered in dust in the attic of the Franz family home.  The family's patriarch is deceased & it's left to Victor to deal with what remains.  Victor has been the moral pillar and mainstay in caring for his elderly father.  He's a longtime cop married to Esther (Jessica Hecht who corners the character market on the whiny wife.)   It seems Victor had more lofty dreams and his wife - well, money that's what she wants.  But you can't put a price on morality, responsibility and sacrifice.  The play is set entirely in the attic amidst the flotsam & jetsam & ghosts of yesteryear.  Try as he may, Victor cannot elicit a price from Solomon who is cagey and garrulous.  The bartering banter begins to wear thin.  Thanks to Ruffalo's breaking from character & laughing at DeVitto the audience received a light respite.  Ultimately, Solomon comes up with a "good price for all this outdated furniture that won't fit into modern apartments," and starts doling out the cash to Victor just as his brother Walter (the incomprable Tony Sholub) appears at the top of the stairs.  Act II begins exactly where Act I ended as if only a moment passed.  However, it's been almost 3 decades since the brothers have been together.  Walter left home to become a successful surgeon and Victor stayed behind to be the family caregiver.  Miller's familial themes of sibling rivalries, unachieved aspirations and guilt are tinged throughout but the juxtaposition of humor to Victor's haplessness & Walter's hubris dismantle the play.  Walter's version of the family's history & his departure do not go uncontested by Victor emerging with fierceness.  The squabbling and supplicating between Walter & Victor are virtuosic performances.   Victor continues to hold the partial cash payment once offered from Solomon in hand throughout the play.  "The Price" is not  preferred by me.  Still, there is partial value to be gained in seeing luminescent stars on stage.