Tony Award® winner, Emmy Award® winner, and Oscar® nominee Laurence Fishburne is both the star and the playwright of this one-man tour de force which he describes as “the stories and lies people have told me. And that I have told myself.”
Mr. Fishburne has captured imaginations throughout his extraordinary career with unforgettable performances on stage and screen, from Ike Turner in What’s Love Got to Do with It? (Academy Award® nomination for Best Actor), to Sterling Johnson in August Wilson’s Two Trains Running (Tony Award for Best Featured Actor), to his mind-bending turn as Morpheus in the blockbuster film series The Matrix.
Now he brings his legendary storytelling skills to PAC NYC for a World Premiere event helmed by Leonard Foglia, director of Mr. Fishburne’s acclaimed solo performance Thurgood on Broadway.
Fishburne has the air of wisdom of someone who, having undertaken deep self-investigation, is eager to share his findings. (The restrained undulating projections designed by Elaine J. McCarthy have a light-behind-the-eyelids feel, evoking memory and contemplation.) To the question of legacy, Fishburne seems to say: It’s not the stage and screen roles that matter, but his powers of perception — of others and of himself. It’s a skill you don’t have to be a movie star to perfect.
He tells stories. The stories, in eight different scenes or segments, range from harrowing to comic, and sometimes both; and are, he says, sometimes true, sometimes false, sometimes both: He is an actor and a storyteller, he explains, “which is a polite way of saying I’ve been a bullshit artist all my life.” Fishburne mixes recollections and impersonations that seem connected only by his talent and intelligence. There is no obvious overall theme. This is how “Like They Do in the Movies” differs from the solo shows by the three theater artists who have apparently inspired this piece: Among the many people Fishburne thanks on a page In the playbill are “Dr. Whoopi Goldberg, John Leguizamo, and Anna Deavere Smith, for showing me the way.”
2024 | Off-Broadway |
Original Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2024 | Drama League Awards | Disinguished Performance | Laurence Fishburne |
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