Denzel Washington hits a homerun with ‘Fences'

NEW YORK -- The man at the center of Atlanta director Kenny Leon’s eloquent Broadway revival of August Wilson’s “Fences” may be a famously handsome two-time Oscar winner. But for the next 12 weeks, he wears the role of his flawed, frustrated, trash-collecting hero as naturally and comfortably as a pair of sweaty old overalls.

The actor in question is of course the Hollywood titan Denzel Washington, who is making a virtuosic, career-defining, grand-slam turn as the lusty, long-forgotten Negro League hitter Troy Maxson. ("Fences," which had its official opening Monday night at the Cort Theatre, continues its limited run through July 11.)

As directed by Leon and supported by the estimable Viola Davis as Troy’s wife, Rose, Washington leaves his scorching, charismatic fingerprints all over the baseball bat long associated with James Earl Jones, whose original 1987 performance earned him a Tony Award and positioned this Pulitzer Prize winner as Wilson’s most accessible and familiar work. Swigging gin and swinging at his own mortality, Troy rails at the heavens, but he knows he is a marked man, and it is that scared gleam in his eye that makes Washington's Troyso recognizably human.

For his fourth outing on the Great White Way, Leon scores a homerun of his own, delivering his most polished Broadway production since his otherworldly take on Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean” (2004). The artistic director of Atlanta’s True Colors Theatre adds a lovely and evocative new jazz score by Branford Marsalis and magnifies the Biblical import of what appears to be an ordinary, earthbound domestic drama about transgression, defeat and forgiveness.

When Troy lifts his hand to strike his cowering son Cory (Chris Chalk), the story of Abraham and Isaac comes to mind, and it is no coincidence that Troy’s war-damaged brother (Mykelti Williamson) shares a name with the archangel Gabriel. (Too bad that Williamson’s poorly nuanced account of the sweetly naïve Gabe sounds so out of tune with the rest of this 1957 period piece.)

The fence that Troy insists on building at the side of the house (handsomely designed by Santo Loquasto) is a metaphor for the divides that demonize and splinter his family. Though Cory wants to play football, Troy is determined that his child won’t repeat his mistakes, and the battle of wills between the slight son and strapping father is played with a degree of physical violence that heightens the fear and anxiety.

While Chalk’s Cory is quite good,  Russell Hornsby’s walk-on performance as Troy's first-born son, Lyons, is nicely dependable. And as Troy’s sidekick, Bono, Stephen McKinley Henderson gives a pitch-perfect performance utterly lacking in actorly self-consciousness.

But not to be overlooked here is Davis, who gives a devastating, Tony-courting  performance as Troy's wife, Rose. Dressed in designer Constanza Romero's cotton house dresses, the dour, bottled-up Rose melts in her husband's arms as he arrives for their Friday pay day ritual. And when Troy makes the confession that will destroy their happiness, Davis falls to the floor like a person who has been shot. She's superb.

And so it is that Leon, the only Atlanta director working on Broadway today, continues his winning streak as the nation's finest interpreter of the Wilson canon. By dint of its ravishing design and emotional sweep, this "Fences" is that rarest of Broadway efforts: a glamorous, star-driven show that actually earns its buzz.

Theater review

“Fences”

Grade: A