Denzel Washington Back To Broadway For ‘The Iceman Cometh’

Hopefully scrudpup can get tickets.

But in all seriousness, this is very interesting.

In Angels in America, Nathan Lane (as Roy Cohn) if they put him lead and Andrew Garfield (as Prior) and the overwhelmingly great 3 time previous winner Mark Rylance are likely nominees this year - so this could be a very great race with Washington having a monumental and distinctive role.

Rylance, I believe would set the record with a 4th win overall and 3rd lead win surpassing Langella (and Bates and Dennehy etc) for Lead wins and tying him total for non-musical actors (though I could be wrong about that, I am pretty sure that's accurate but too lazy to check it)

My buddy saw Iceman last night in its 1st preview and said it was pretty great and Washington's in very fine form. He didn't like the way some of the direction incorporated everybody but figures they'll hash it out (that's always a problem actually at first, huge play, huge cast, etc.)

Anybody catch Washington on Access Hollywood or maybe that was Extra? Regardless that was great - probably the only time "Eugene O'Neill" has ever been mentioned that significantly on whichever POS that was

Awesome! Really excited to see it - we can compare our reviews Matts - I'm seeing it end of month if I can make it, if not, early May

Glad to see Bill Irwin mentioned finally! - I can't believe a Tony winner is being somewhat pushed in the background here a bit - I have several friends who saw it and didn't even mention him - I'm like wtf, he's in it right?!!

I saw Spacey's version (which I thought he was pretty great in handling the text) and the Lumet version (pretty good - with an up and down Lee Marvin) and Robards in the Lumet 1960 TV version taped performance (Great again .......) - but I'm really p*ssed that I missed the Nathan Lane (as Hickey)/Brian Dennehy one off Broadway a couple years back at Brooklyn Academy of Music because it so overlaps with whats happening this year.

Some of my friends who saw it already said Washington's speech is less frantic than Robards - less of the overt madness which is in every version of the play I've ever seen - even regional productions I've seen of it usually emphasize the madness in Hickey more than anything - but I was told Washington was a more emotional or overtly sadder, weight of the world on his shoulders Hickey .........as my friend said usually Hickey is clear minded as to what he is, Washington's take (to him) seemed more modern  - as in he's become lost himself now - not a better or worse approach but just a different take on it.  I'm anxious to see it.

For those who've never seen it, as an example, here's Pacino (who got beaten to his own production of the role by Spacey doing it first), not acting the role here but doing a reading of the text that I think this shows how you can wring different meaning from this great part. This is from a terrific PBS special on O'Neill:

I have mixed feelings on it as I said in my first post in this thread - right now it's Fences, A Raisin In The Sun, Iceman in 7-8 years and what's pending is other "biggies" - that have all been played to great acclaim before - it's getting dangerously close to Tony-begging in a way. It's not really ultimately, but it can look that way if you just do the biggies- and just to show you I'm not playing favorites, I think Pacino circling HBO every few years to do TV is dangerously close to Emmy begging too -  maybe it's time to play a non-famous biopic and not on HBO for a while - as good as they've been.

But, you have to grant them a little break because of their status in each of these.........and Iceman is a hard work play (there's easier ones he could do) and the HBO films are original productions (who else could play Cohn/Kevorkian/Spector/Paterno?), so ultimately I don't think what they are doing in these fields is really begging.

I will say this, King Lear is an insanely popular play now - in the last 10 years McKellan, Langella, Kline, Sher (currently) have done it on stage.........Hopkins is filming it for TV now I think...........Pacino may film it soon but imo can't physically do it on stage now...........Washington could do it on stage and be good too - I've seen his Richard III which was hit or miss but had its moments and he was much younger then and has the love of Shakespeare and the experience. Lear may be a more perfect fit for him actually.

This is an insanely productive Lear period for everybody.

I think the notion that Washington is Tony Begging is sort of ludicrious . He couldn't even remember the name of Tony commitee when he accepted his first Tony. Washington has long since proven that he's no longer in this game for awards. He definitely likes recognition and winning stuff if it happens, but he doesn't make choices for shiny trinkets. He's managed to be easily the most Oscar nominated leading actor of his generation, by  doing by far the least "oscarbaiting" (compare his award season ratio of films to Tom Hanks, Sean Penn and Daniel Day-Lewis).

He's got a Tony. Another one will be nice, but it won't significantly alter his theatrical stature. He's already a stage great. Washington is in this for legacy, and you don't need more awards for that, when you've been as heavily rewarded as he has. You just need to put in the work, do the roles, and deliver. He's not a young man anymore. He's going after the great roles on stage, because frankly, time isn't on his side to get them done, especially when he has a busy film acting and directing career on the side. He's done loads of new plays and playwrights as a younger actor, many to tremendous acclaim. A Soldier's Play, Checkmates and When The Chickens Come To Roost (where he first played Malcolm X. Found some fascinating footage on youtube of Washington in this play).



He doesn't need to do anything for anyone other than himself at this stage. He's supported new playwrights in the past. That's no longer his focus. Now he's trying to cement his legacy as the greatest actor of all-time, and that means (to him) doing as many as the great stage roles as possible, till he physically can't manage it anymore. I'm sure he regrets ageing out of Hamlet. But frankly, he's doing what a lot of our film "greats" lacked the willingness, stamina, technique or courage to do. He's doing what Brando should have done (he had the ability to do  all the great stage roles, and he apparently talked about doing them all the time, but never actually did them, bar the one he originated in Streetcar). What Day-Lewis should have done. What Hackman should have done. What Nicholson was incapable of doing. What DeNiro was mostly unsuited to doing.

Well stephen, I'd say just because I think Al is physically unsuited to do Lear on stage doesn't mean he thinks he is - he's kind of nuts hahaha, but I think his Lear is calling as a Michael Radford film version if at all. I mostly agree with what you say about "begging".........it isn't as cut and dried to me as it is to you but the important thing is in the doing of it - the work itself.

I should also mention that in the mid-late 70s, Olivier (the best Lear btw I've ever seen at what - 80?) did that sort of Washington thing except on BBC TV film here and pre-dates Pacino too in his his theater-film transfers - ahead of his time and with his insane work ethic, filming some plays he loved that he couldn't have played due to age and some other things otherwise and those are listed below:


Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams
The Collection by Harold Pinter
Come Back, Little Sheba by William Inge
Daphne Laureola by James Bridie
Saturday, Sunday, Monday by Eduardo De Filippo.

Exactly. I'm sorry, but fuck giving these guys a pass because like you said, they made some great movies in the 70's and 80's or whatever. Washington puts people like DeNiro to utter shame. DeNiro is a guy with zero remaining artistic ambition, who still makes movies mainly to keep himself occupied and to fund his busnisses (Tribeca festival and restaurants ain't cheap). 

If Washington, still an A-list movie star in his 60's can keep returning to stage for the biggest artistic challenges possible, there's no excuses for most of these guys other than laziness. Even Robert Duvall annoyed me once by claiming Shakespeare should be for the British, and that for Americans, Westerns should be considered the equivalent of Shakespeare. To which I say to Mr Duvall, that a great American actor can do both Shakespeare and westerns. The lack of ambition in so many of the great American actors is kind of tragic. Washington wants to be able to go out on his shield, and say, I don't care if you are an esteemed British classical actor, I can go toe to toe with you on your playing field. You can be Olivier or McKellen and play King Lear, but so can I. Now let's see you do Training Day or He Got Game, and sell that.

I get that about Westerns as a uniquely American form (though don't tell that to Sergio Leone), but Duvall was just using that as cover when being asked why he avoided classical works like Shakespeare. Duvall as a young man had a really strong stage career in contemporary works (at least they were contemporary at the time), but I feel he always had an inferiority complex with things like Shakespeare, which is common in even the most talented American actors.

Again, it's rare that you get those legitimately great American film actors like George C Scott or Philip Seymour Hoffman or Al Pacino or Denzel Washington who don't have that inferiority complex when it comes to classical stuff. Paul Newman was a great actor, but he had that inferiority complex as well. It limited his range.

Oh, Brando has a whole downside to what he did to acting - he has a huge upside of course, and you know I love him - but it came with a lot of negatives too including the belief people had in "naturalistic" performances only and the celebration of laziness. That the best actors don't care. I remember when Pacino was at one of his many low points, after Revolution and James Caan said "he should never do anything with an accent ever" and I was like what a gross, unartistic thing to say - I know they are friends and Caan is a joker but come on.

Earlier in this thread I mentioned that Washington playing Hickey - his mere playing of the role is important because Hickey is not associated with African American actors (James Earl Jones played him in the 70s) - what if he didn't play it (or other O'Neill)? What about if a young actor looked at that as - Denzel didn't play that O'Neill sh*t and I don't need to either and I can be rich and famous........that would be heartbreaking, and anti-Art wouldn't it? That is something that Brando I think didn't get, how much what worked for him didn't apply outside of him........