Last week at the Tribeca Film Festival's premiere of Alex Gibney's documentary based on the play, My Trip to Al-Qaeda, author Lawrence Wright's explained how he found himself in the midst of controversy after having scripted the 1998 action adventure, The Siege, proclaiming the true threat of terrorism. And then: 9/11 elevated his words to prophesy. A clip of Denzel Washington appears in the film within the film carrying the weight of this message, of a demonic scheme: fear becoming the instrument of our demise. A day later, Denzel Washington was carrying another kind of weight at the Broadway revival of August Wilson's Fences. 

An Everyman to whom attention must be paid, to echo Arthur Miller's words about his salesman, the character Troy Maxson is the center of a domestic drama, a sanitation worker in 1957 Pittsburgh with a house and yard, a wife ( a stunning performance by Viola Davis), struggling with parenting, his loss of dreams, and a secret life; ultimately through August Wilson's genius, he struggles with his position beyond the titular fence. While James Earl Jones is memorable from the original, Washington's swagger and frailty, his timing with Wilson's poetry, makes this Troy Shakespearean.

Among those reveling with Washington's family, and the Fences cast and crew, on that rainy night at the Bryant Part Grill: Chris Rock, Spike Lee, Jessica Lange, Harry Belafonte, Mike Nichols, John Patrick Shanley, Emily Blunt and her beau John Krasinski, and Courtney Vance from the original Broadway cast. Without a doubt, as Tony time approaches, watch this play garner every award, Best Actor and Actress, Best Dramatic Play.