Two-time Academy Award® winner Denzel Washington returns to Broadway, alongside Academy Award nominee and Tony Award® winner Viola Davis, in August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play. This strictly limited 13-week engagement begins April 14th at the Cort Theatre. Both a monumental drama and an intimate family portrait, Fences tells the story of Troy Maxson, a man torn between the glory of his past and the uncertainty of his future. Emboldened by pride and embittered by sacrifice, Troy is determined to make life better for future generations, even as he struggles to embrace the dreams of his own son.
Certainly, Washington eroticizes Troy, a character typically played by more stentorian actors with deeper bass notes and thicker girths (although Washington has put on a few pounds and wants not for gravitas). But that potent sexual appeal — underexpressed in most productions of this oft-revived masterpiece — is very much a part of Troy. He was, after all, a star athlete of the Negro Leagues, and his married state doesn't prevent him from bedding a much younger woman (unseen but with enthusiasm implied) and fathering her child. Viola Davis, who plays Rose, the wife Troy betrays, uses that more powerful sense of sexual betrayal to fuel the play's famous Act 2 howl of anguish with such force that you're moved to tears. If Troy is already a broken, angry man, Rose hasn't lost much. But when you're losing Denzel Washington to some cheap floozy — well, the stakes can't help but rise.
Washington seems to have seized upon Rose's comment that when Troy 'walked through the house, he was so big he filled it up.' If he sank fully into his character, an outsize performance could work. But Washington never lets you forget you're watching him act. That fact is amplified by director Kenny Leon's tendency to overemphasize the play's inherent soapiness. Lines are underlined and spelled out in capital letters. It doesn't draw you in to Wilson's characters, but builds a fence between you and them.
1987 | Broadway |
Broadway |
2010 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2010 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Chris Chalk, |
2010 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play | Viola Davis |
2010 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Music in a Play | Branford Marsalis |
2010 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play (tie) | Fences |
2010 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Denzel Washington |
2010 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Play | Viola Davis |
2010 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | 0 |
2010 | Theatre World Awards | Performance | Chris Chalk |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Play | Constanza Romero |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Play | Constanza Romero |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Play | Kenny Leon |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre | Branford Marsalis |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Stephen McKinley Henderson |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Denzel Washington |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Viola Davis |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | Carole Shorenstein Hays |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | Scott Rudin |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Play | Santo Loquasto |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Sound Design of a Play | Acme Sound Partners |
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