Review Roundup: THE PIANO LESSON Film- How Does It Live Up to August Wilson's Play?

Reviews have begun to trickle in for Malcolm Washington's big-screen adaptation of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival this past weekend.

From Oscar-nominated producers Denzel Washington and Todd Black, the movie features an all-star cast including Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Ray Fisher, Michael Potts, Erykah Badu with Danielle Deadwyler, and Corey Hawkins. Several cast members reprise their roles from the 2022 Broadway revival including Potts, John David Washington, Fisher, and Jackson.

Adapted from August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork, The Piano Lesson explores the intergenerational dynamics of identity, resilience and transcendence - revealing startling truths about how we perceive the past and who gets to define our legacy.

Part of Wilson's American Century Cycle, the original production of the play premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1987, also starring Samuel L. Jackson. In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize for drama, The Piano Lesson won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, the Peabody Award, and was nominated for the 1990 Tony Award for Best Play. 

The Piano Lesson will be in select theaters this November 8th and available for streaming on Netflix starting November 22. Ahead of the film's official debut, find out what critics thought of the highly-anticipated film. Read the reviews below and check back we continue to update this roundup as more come in.

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Lovia Gyarke, The Hollywood Reporter: "It’s clear that Washington takes the task of adapting Wilson quite seriously, and there’s much to admire about The Piano Lesson. The director has assembled a strong cast, whose committed performances do the playwright’s famed drama justice. But the duty can also be limiting, and there are times when The Piano Lesson is too faithful, struggling to shake the specter of the stage." 

Pete Hammond, Deadline: "Malcolm Washington, who has done a number of shorts or other filmic enterprises, here gets to dabble in rich source material but still finds a way to make it his own by honoring Wilson’s intentions and expanding on them."

Caleb Hammond, IndieWire: "With Wilson’s source material full of appropriately weighty topics to mine, Malcolm Washington’s adaptation of “The Piano Lesson” is referential, often overly so, and while this version contains its fair share of standout sequences along with Oscar-ready performances, the film never fully coalesces into an effective, singular, emotional narrative."

Maureen Lee Lenker, Entertainment Weekly: "August Wilson is a poet of the American stage. In the hands of this remarkable cast and Washington's assured direction, Wilson's work finds its best conduit to the screen yet."

Peter Debruge, Variety: "While most of the cast is the same that appeared on Broadway, the movie is undeniably Deadwyler’s show. With “The Piano Lesson,” Wilson wrote one of the great female roles of his career, and in Deadwyler, we get a leading lady who smolders even when silent, finding layers even the author couldn’t have anticipated — which helps, since there’s a stage-stilted sound to much of the dialogue."

Ryan McQuade, AwardsWatch: "Each member of this team helped Washington build an inviting, exciting, haunting experience that features standout moments lifted by an all-star cast, even if his leading actor doesn’t come close to his fellow ensemble member’s dramatic heights from scene to scene. In creating the right tone and space for the piece, he provides moments that elegant his take on Wilson’s work to a whole other level."

Radheyan Simonpillai, The Guardian: "The tension between them never quite takes hold, even when their emotions boil over, which Washington, the director, manifests visually during an amusingly chaotic ghostly reckoning, achieving a different kind of catharsis. There’s a struggle throughout the movie to marry the human emotions to the surreal and supernatural spectacle."

Ross Bonaime, Collider: Of the recent Wilson adaptations, The Piano Lesson is the film that struggles the most to find its bearings off the stage. Yet Malcolm Washington shows himself to be a capable director, expanding this story in the ways he can while staying true to the source material. This cast also knows how to elevate Wilson's words beautifully, whether it's sticking close to a more stagelike performance or bringing new life to this story, as Deadwyler does. The Piano Lesson has its troubles in the adaptation process, yet Washington's film is a strong installment in the increasingly impressive lineup of Wilson adaptations.

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