Willy Loman — washed up, beaten down and trying to ride a little longer on a smile and a shoeshine before he’s kicked to the curb — has been a staple of Broadway since Arthur Miller’s “ Death of a Salesman ” first electrified audiences in 1949 with its searing portrait of uncaring capitalism. There have been seven productions in all, offering up very different takes on the titular salesman — from volcanic (Brian Dennehy, George C. Scott), to intensely deranged (Lee J. Cobb), to mournful (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Wendell Pierce), to self-deluded and scrappy (Dustin Hoffman). But there’s never been a “Death of a Salesman” quite like the current Broadway production directed by Joe Mantello and starring Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf .…