Entertainment

Denzel swings for the ‘Fences’

Denzel Washington will star in a revival of August Wilson’s “Fences” on Broadway this spring, The Post has learned exclusively.

The two-time Oscar-winner will play Troy Maxson, a volatile former baseball player and ex-convict.

First played by James Earl Jones in 1987, the role is considered to be one of the most demanding in the American theater, right up there with Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.”

Washington joins a parade of stars strutting the boards in New York this season — Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig (“A Steady Rain”), James Gandolfini (“God of Carnage”) and Jude Law (“Hamlet”).

Washington last appeared on Broadway in 2005 as Brutus in “Julius Caesar.” The production received mixed reviews, but Washington proved a huge box-office draw, earning the show’s backers more than $1 million.

The fifth in Wilson’s cycle of 10 plays about African-American culture in the 20th century, “Fences” won the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1988.

The revival will be directed by Kenny Leon, who staged “A Raisin in the Sun,” starring Sean Combs in 2004.

“Fences” will open in April at a Broadway theater yet to be announced.