‘The Piano Lesson’ is back on Broadway, starring Samuel L. Jackson

NEW YORK, Sept 15 (Reuters) – American playwright August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” is returning to Broadway, with Samuel L. Jackson starring and his spouse directing.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning work, set in 1936, tells the story of a brother and sister battling over what to do with an heirloom piano that has photos of their household carved by an enslaved ancestor.

LaTanya Richardson Jackson, in her Broadway directing debut, has a extra literal tackle the story than her predecessors.

“I feel that the boys have shied away or they wished to make this such a metaphor. And I am like, oh, no, I am telling a ghost story,” she mentioned.

Samuel Jackson, enjoying Doaker Charles, returns to the work after enjoying the character’s nephew Boy Willie in its first manufacturing on the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1987.

“By the point the play traveled and got here again to Broadway and I used to be an understudy, I used to be just about devastated that I wasn’t going to make my Broadway debut,” the actor mentioned.

“Drowning myself in a drug-fueled type of craziness and ended up in rehab, which, you realize, began an entire ‘nother journey for me.”

John David Washington, making his Broadway debut as Boy Willie, is coping with many various emotions, he mentioned. “I am extraordinarily excited to stroll that stage and current this play the perfect, one of the simplest ways I can.”

The present, which additionally stars Danielle Brooks, begins previews on Sept. 19.

Reporting by Alicia Powell; Enhancing by Richard Chang

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