Denzel Washington isn’t coming to Broadway to play it safe.
The Oscar-winning actor will tackle one of the great roles in the American theater — Troy Maxson — in a revival this spring of August Wilson’s “Fences.”
Troy is a man “so big,” his wife says, that he fills up their tenement house just by walking through it.
A garbage collector living in a Pittsburgh slum in the 1950s, he was once a baseball player in the Negro Leagues, but his career never went anywhere. He is bitter and full of rage, although there are moments in the play when he is tender, quiet and poetic.
James Earl Jones played Troy in the original 1987 production, winning every award in sight, including the Tony (when that now-tarnished trophy still meant excellence in the theater).
Critic Frank Rich thought it was the best role of Jones’ career.
“A black man, a free man, a descendent of slaves, a menial laborer, a father, a husband, a lover — Mr. Jones’ Troy embraces all the contradictions of being black and male and American in his time,” Rich wrote.
Washington saw that performance and never forgot it. He’s long wanted to play the part, but is only now, at 54, the right age.
“He was offered it a few times, but he knew he was too young,” a source close to the actor says. “He loves the play and he loved August.”
Wilson died of liver cancer in 2005.
“Fences” was Wilson’s only financially successful play on Broadway. The others in his 10-play cycle about African-American life in the 20th century — “The Piano Lesson,” “Two Trains Running” and “Seven Guitars” among them — received raves from critics but didn’t recoup.
With Washington in the lead, “Fences” should prove a pretty hot ticket. The actor last appeared on Broadway in “Julius Caesar” in 2005. The production received mixed reviews, but such was the demand to see Washington live onstage that the backers walked away with more than $1 million in profits.
“Fences” is still looking for a theater, but sources say it will likely end up at one of the Shuberts’ premiere houses, possibly the Barrymore if David Mamet‘s “Race” isn’t a hit.
Carole Shorenstein Hays, who produced the play the first time around, and Scott Rudin are backing the revival. Rudin has the movie rights as well and, I’m told, has on his desk a fine “Fences” screenplay Wilson spent three years writing.
It’s not a stretch to imagine that if this revival works, Washington could repeat his performance in the movie that Rudin longs to make.
DENZEL Washington in “Fences”; Ashlee Simpson in “Chicago.”
Now that really is going from the sublime to the ridiculous.
In December, Simpson will step into the role of Roxie Hart in the long-running hit musical for six weeks.
Snicker and roll your eyes all you want, but I have to report that the pop star did a pretty good job in the London production last year. A source on the show says she sang and danced well. Her acting wasn’t exactly in Vanessa Redgrave‘s league, but she managed to convey Roxie’s desperate desire to be famous.
She was especially good in the ventriloquist scene, which shouldn’t come as a surprise since we all know what a natural born lip-syncer she is.