It didn’t take much arm wrestling to get Denzel Washington back on Broadway, says director Kenny Leon: “When we finished doing [2010’s] ‘Fences,’ he said he wanted to do Broadway again, maybe every three or four years. Two years later, I reminded him.”
Enter the acclaimed revival of “A Raisin in the Sun,” which is up for several Tonys, including Best Director for Leon but nothing for the film star.
And that’s a shame, says his director, who calls Washington’s performance as a frustrated chauffeur driven by big dreams “truthful, honest and great. He’s a theater beast!”
Leon’s next project is a musical, “Holler If Ya Hear Me,” scored to the work of rap’s late, legendary Tupac Shakur. “I promised his mother I’d respect what he’s trying to say,” Leon says.
Here’s what’s in this director’s library.
Things I Should Have Told My Daughter
by Pearl Cleage
I was the director who commissioned her four plays, and she sent me the galley of this book. Pearl has a very specific voice, and this is like an open journal of her life. It was scary to read someone writing about her love life, her political life, her feminism — scary in a good way!
Dr. J: The Autobiography
by Julius Erving
He’s a good friend of mine — he was the best man at my wedding. I’m so proud of him. I think he’s one of the most courageous people I know. You think he’d be bitter about all the things he’s gone through — the loss of his son and his brother — but he always tells me, “My best days are still ahead.” So when I put out a show, I always tell myself that, too.
Same Kind of Different As Me
by Ron Hall and Denver Moore
What’s great about this is that it shows how our lives intersect and how our differences bond us. Denver is black, Ron is white. Ron’s family owned the land that Denver’s family worked. They went their separate ways and met again at a homeless shelter, where they ended up becoming best friends. It’s a true story and an amazing book.
Tempest Rising
by Diane McKinney-Whetstone
Set in Philadelphia in the 1960s, it’s a complex story about people who grew up poor, have their own business, the business goes south, the father dies and the three daughters are separated when their mother is institutionalized. I think it would make a good film, and I think Phylicia Rashad wants to produce it.