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.
But Troy’s interactions with Rose are what give “Fences” its moments of genuine glory. Ms. Davis, who won a Tony for her performance in Wilson’s “King Hedley II,” may well pick up another for her work here. Her face is a poignant paradox, both bone-tired and suffused with sensual radiance. Rose has resigned herself to her life in a way Troy cannot, but that doesn’t mean there’s not passionate yearning within. What Troy rants about, Rose keeps to herself, and Ms. Davis draws extraordinary power from that reticence; you never feel that Rose is any less deep than her husband. You can sense, so palpably that it hurts, why Troy and Rose were meant to be together, and when it looked as if the marriage might be going south at the performance I attended, you could hear horrified gasps in the audience. Mr. Washington and Ms. Davis prove that lovers don’t have to be as young and star-crossed as Romeo and Juliet to generate shiver-making heat and pathos.
Denzel Washington is the draw for this revival of August Wilson's 'Fences.' But it's the play itself that keeps audiences on the edge of their seats: This is pure, unabashed melodrama -- the kind where the line 'Got something to tell you' never introduces good news. The 1987 play, which won both the Pulitzer and Tony, may not be Wilson's most sophisticated effort -- brace yourself for multiple baseball analogies -- but it's one of his most emotionally effective. And it feels good to be taken for a ride by such a storyteller, especially when the ride is as delicately staged, as gorgeously acted as it is here.
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 |
Videos