Yes, Denzel is too old for the role. He is also a major movie star and a good actor. I do think a Walter in his 30's is more compelling and has more at stake, but that's not to say that this excellent play rises and falls on Walter's age. The material is sturdy enough to support Denzel's age, and he may shed new light on a moment or two. Let's see.
"To me, the biggest hitch in a 59-year-old Walter is that his younger sister, Beneatha, needs money for her education."
Why do you think the actor's age will be the same age as the character's? It makes absolutely no sense. You're just going off the actors that have played the role before.
The character is obviously supposed to be 30ish. Washington is 60. It's ABSURD to cast him in that role. So, what, there are no talented black actors in New York who can handle it? They need to import a senior citizen from Hollywood?
Actually, the playwright does specify the ages of the characters. In my copy of the script ...
Ruth is "about thirty." Travis is "ten or eleven." Walter is "in his middle thirties." Beneatha is "about twenty." Mama is "in her early sixties."
Of course, how old an actors looks is more important than their actual age. Anika Noni Rose, for instance, can probably still pass for early 20's onstage even though she's about two decades past that in real life.
I'm sorry but playing younger is just not something an actor can accomplish. Washington is wise, he can't unlearn all he knows. A 60 year old just has a certain tone of voice, a certain gait that cannot be overcome. He's wasting his (and our) time playing this role.
"I'm sorry but playing younger is just not something an actor can accomplish."
That may be, quite possibly, the dumbest thing anyone has ever written on BWW. An actor pretends to be someone he is not, that's....that's what acting is. He doesn't look his age, and again, he is an actor. He becomes someone else. You know... acting! Just don't see it if it's simply NOT acceptable to you.
"He's wasting his (and our) time playing this role."
Well, he would disagree with you since he's agreed to take the role. So would the Producers who've agreed to hire him. So would audiences who will no doubt sell out the theater night after night and more than likely very much enjoy his performance. Such a shame the producers didn't run their casting decisions by you first.
Samuel Jackson played Martin Luther King Jr. in The Mountaintop, even though he is 25 years older than King was when he died. Cathy Rigby is, at age 60, still playing the "eternal boy" Peter Pan. Vanessa Redgrave, 75, and James Earl Jones, 81, played the lovers Beatrice and Benedick in a production of Much Ado about Nothing at the Old Vic, characters normally thought to be in their 30s. This happens all the time and it's not a big deal.
Right, to you it won't work. As you've said many, many times now. I don't think they'll miss you. It's going to be huge, make tons of money, and I'm sure the cast will be exceptional in the parts. That's really the bottom line.
lovebwy, I'm sure the reviews will be fine. Washington is a Tony Award winning actor and he'll give an intense performance. But even if they're not, what difference does it make? It's a 3 month limited run, they will sell out every night and the producers will make a pantload of money which is after all, the whole point of for-profit theater. They'll be counting the money and you'll be sitting in your studio walk up apartment muttering over and over to your pet poodle Merman, "see, I told 'em. I told em".