With eldest son John David working with Oscar-winning directors like Spike Lee and Christopher Nolan, daughter Olivia starring in the Boots Riley series “I’m a Virgo” and the West End production of “Slave Play,” and youngest son Malcolm getting behind the camera to adapt August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “The Piano Lesson,” it’s fair to say Denzel Washington and wife Pauletta Washington may be shaping the next great entertainment dynasty, up there with the Hustons and the Fondas. Producing his son Malcolm’s directorial debut, which stars both his other son John David and one of his best friends, Samuel L. Jackson, Denzel helps to hone in on one of the key themes of “The Piano Lesson”: Family legacy.
The official synopsis reads: “A battle is brewing in the Charles Household. At the center stands a prized heirloom piano tearing two siblings apart. On one side, a brother (John David Washington) plans to build the family fortune by selling it. On the other, a sister (Danielle Deadwyler) will go to any lengths to hold onto the sole vestige of the family’s heritage. Their uncle (Jackson) tries to mediate, but even he can’t hold back the ghosts of the past.”
In many ways, “The Piano Lesson” is about how history haunts. Speaking for a recent piece in Vanity Fair, co-star Michael Potts said of Malcolm’s translation from stage to screen, “He got the haunting. He created this ghost story, which is far more difficult to manifest on stage, but the way he did it in the movie was extraordinary. It’s like, this family’s haunted. They’re haunted by their past. They’re haunted in their present.”
Potts was featured in the Tony-nominated 2022 Broadway production directed by Jackson’s wife, Latanya Richardson Jackson, and starring John David, Jackson, and Ray Fischer, all of whom reprise their roles in the film. They’re joined by new cast members Danielle Deadwyler, Corey Hawkins, and Erykah Badu. A previous TV film version of the play was produced by Hallmark for CBS in 1995 and starred Charles S. Dutton and Alfre Woodard. Denzel himself has a great history with Wilson plays, having performed in “Fences” on Broadway and following it up with an Oscar-winning screen adaptation written by, directed by, and starring himself. He also produced an adaptation of Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” for Netflix starring Viola Davis and featuring Chadwick Boseman’s final role.
“The Piano Lesson” currently is slated for an “international premiere” at Toronto International Film Festival, implying it will have its world premiere at Telluride, though no lineup for the Colorado fest has been announced.
Netflix will release the film in select theaters November 8, before streaming on November 22. Watch the trailer below.
