Denzel Washington Eyes Broadway Revival of August Wilson's Fences

Denzel Washington appears set to return to Broadway in spring 2010 in a revival of August Wilson’s Fences, according to The New York Times. Citing an unnamed “executive involved with the production,” the Times reports that the two-time Oscar winner will play Troy Maxon at an unspecified theater in late spring 2010. Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun and Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf) is reportedly “in negotiations” to direct.

In a role created by James Earl Jones (who won a Best Actor Tony), Washington will play a former baseball star working as a garbage collector in 1950s Pittsburgh, who has a prickly relationship with his wife and son. The original 1987 Broadway production won the Pulitzer Prize and Best Play Tony Award and ran for 525 performances, Wilson’s biggest commercial success on Broadway.

Washington played Brutus in a 2005 Broadway revival of Julius Caesar and starred in a 1990 Central Park production of Richard III, In 1979, he had multiple roles in a Central Park production of Coriolanus and later starred off-Broadway in A Soldier’s Play. The actor received an Academy Award for best actor for Training Day and for best supporting actor for Glory. His most recent films include The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The Great Debaters, American Gangster and Inside Man.

The Times lists Carole Shorenstein Hayes and Scott Rudin as producers of Fences.