Denzel Washington to Star in Broadway Revival of Fences

By Adam Hetrick
November 10, 2009

Two-time Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington will star in the 2010 Broadway revival of late playwright August Wilson's Fences, according to the New York Times.

Washington, who also appeared in the 2005 revival of Julius Caesar and the 1988 comedy Checkmates, will portray former baseball player Troy Maxson, a role which earned veteran actor James Earl Jones his second Tony Award.

The New York Times reports that Kenny Leon is in negotiations to direct. The project, which is produced by Carol Shorenstein Hays and Scott Rudin, had previously announced Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks as director.

Fences will begin rehearsals this February with an April 2010 opening, Variety is reporting. Denzel has signed on for a 14-week run through mid-July.

Leon, who is the artistic director of Atlanta's True Colors Theatre, has staged the Broadway productions of A Raisin in the Sun, as well as August Wilson's Radio Golf and Gem of the Ocean, the latter of which was produced by Hays.

Washington garnered Academy Awards for his performances in "Training Day" and "Glory." He also earned Academy Award nominations for his work in "The Hurricane," "Malcolm X" and "Freedom."

Fences, Wilson's 1950-60's Pittsburgh-set drama, follows the struggle of a former Negro League baseball player who now finds himself working as a garbage collector.

The original staging of Fences earned a Tony Award for Best Play as well as a Best Leading Actor award for James Earl Jones, Best Featured Actress for Mary Alice, Best Direction for Lloyd Richards and the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The late Wilson penned a ten-play cycle that documents a different decade in the history of African-American culture during the twentieth century, beginning with Gem of the Ocean (set in the 1900s) through Broadway's recent Radio Golf (set in the 1990s). The majority of Wilson's plays are set in the Pittsburgh Hills District where he was born and raised.

In addition to earning the Tony Award for Fences, Wilson was also honored with a Tony nomination for The Piano Lesson. All of Wilson's plays were Tony-nominated for Best Play, with the exception of Jitney, which played Off-Broadway and won an Olivier for its London production. Wilson is the first African-American playwright to have a Broadway theatre in his name. Mr. Wilson died of liver cancer in October 2005, shortly after finishing rewrites on what would be his last play, Radio Golf, the final chapter in his ten-play legacy.