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.
Leon elicits sensitive work from Hornsby and the stalwart Stephen McKinley Henderson as Troy’s loyal coworker friend, Jim Bono. And, with her second-act breakdown upon hearing that Troy has betrayed her, Davis blows the roof off the Cort with the spectacle of a soul in agony. No one does good-woman-done-wrong with Davis’s volcanic fury. Happily, Washington keeps pace with her on the other side of the temperature spectrum. When Fences first swept Broadway 23 years ago, James Earl Jones’s Troy was reportedly phenomenal. But Washington shows he can hit his share out of the park, too.
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 |
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