And just when you think you know where she's going, Brooks takes a turn, finding new moments to explore while leaving the audience hanging on her every word. She's layered the single mother with equal parts strength and sadness fear and faithfulness. That fundamental difference - between one trying desperately to hold onto a family legacy, and another, hoping to progress further than his ancestors were ever able to - drives the action throughout The Piano Lesson, Wilson ultimately using the story as a reminder to embrace where you come from before you move forward.īut it also leads to a ghostly, thundering climax in which Washington and Brooks charge their characters forward into an exhilarating face-off.īrooks, a standout in Orange Is the New Black who was last on Broadway in The Color Purple, is easily delivering the best work of her career as Bernice. Jackson.Īll bring Wilson's haunting masterpiece to life again with stellar emotional depth, making the legendary playwright's poetic words sing like the sound coming out of the treasured piano at the center of the play's conflict. It's a daring Broadway debut and one matched by the incredible company of actors assembled by director LaTanya Richardson Jackson for this revival, including Danielle Brooks, Michael Potts, Ray Fisher, April Matthis, Trai Byers, and Richardson Jackson's husband, Oscar honoree Samuel L. The 1987 tale, the fourth in Wilson's famed 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle chronicling the evolution of Black America through the 20th century, is back on the boards for the first time in over 30 years in a production packed with an embarrassment of impactful performances led by the electric John David Washington - the former football pro turned actor who approaches the role with the same ferocity and showmanship often inhabited by characters played by his parents, Denzel Washington and Pauletta Washington.

August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Piano Lesson is making beautiful music on Broadway yet again, in a must-see, star-soaked revival now playing at New York City's Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

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