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The Piano Lesson Can’t Quite Live Up to August Wilson’s Play
Malcolm Washington’s The Piano Lesson is a worthwhile and occasionally quite moving adaptation. But it lives uncomfortably between two forms.
You’ll see all the perils and profits of opening up a beloved piece of theater in Malcolm Washington’s film adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Piano Lesson. Malcolm’s father, Denzel Washington, who has taken on the overall project of transforming Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle into individual films (and is credited as a producer here), achieved great success with a very faithful adaptation of Fences back in 2016. Wilson’s play takes place inside a Pittsburgh home, where the outgoing and strong-willed Boy Willie (John David Washington, Malcolm’s brother) and his awkward pal Lymon (Ray Fisher) show up unannounced late one night in 1936.
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