This current Broadway revival of Fences is creating a buzz rarely seen on the Great White Way in recent years. Denzel Washington’s sterling performance as Troy Maxson is a big part of it, but the truth is that the entire cast of Fences are selling tickets like nothing around. Fences tickets owe their success to several things, such as the way the stark but informative set bares Washington and Viola Davis to the fore amid the wreck of their lives. Race is the theme here, and it has really launched the production to a wider radius. The composition of Fences ticket buyers is said to be approximately half African-American and half white, which is a change from most of August Wilson’s other plays. In fact, Wilson has a reputation as a playmaker with a difference; his most likely target audience, and the adaptability of his awesome creations to the silver screen, have both been noted for their low response in a culture obsessed with identity and celluloid.
This time, however, African-Americans are drawn to the charisma oozed by Denzel Washington and are equaling white theatergoers in number, but we have yet to see a single one of Wilson’s celebrated (and cerebral) tales transferred to the medium of film. It’s not surprising that black America has missed out on Wilson’s work; African-Americans are jaded by endless pop-culture versions of their existence that succeed only in shrinking their window of representation. The African-American experience has suffered neglect both on the stage and in movie theaters, because even in the limelight their complex destiny is only allowed so much freedom; any drama becomes a comedy, any neighborhood a gang-blighted urban hellbroth, and any individual defined by rigid limits on personality and expression. The one exception to this is Will Smith, an actor who has enjoyed superstardom while circumventing the trappings of being a famous black man. Indeed, Denzel Washington has a foot in both worlds, and it is fitting that it is he who has brought out the crowds in the correct ratio to see Fences on Broadway. What’s the betting that, should Fences tickets ever be sold in cinemas, it’ll be Mr. Smith in the title role? Will Smith would suit the charismatic dialogues of Wilson’s world, but would he drag the mood down – or up? – to a place that was no longer personal enough to do justice to an August Wilson drama? Perhaps Denzel Washington is the perfect fit for the role; smaller and less obvious than James Earl Jones, Hollywood enough (but without the bubblegum of the Fresh Prince) to sell Fences tickets to a large audience, and indeed serious enough as an actor to make it a movie worth nominating for the biggest prize of all. Speaking of which, Fences recently received ten Tony Award nominations in the Best Revival, Best Actor, Best Actress and other categories, including Best Lighting (for that brilliant set). This is obviously a play that is going places, and Fences Broadway tickets will not be gathering moss. Fences on Broadway is the one they’re talking about right now, and it’s the play that is changing the composition of Broadway’s theater audiences through star power and realism.
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