On Broadway, Fishburne tackles lead in ‘Thurgood’

By KRISTEN A. LEE

The actor says the role gives him a chance to show his humorous side.

NEW YORK — Laurence Fishburne has been taking risks since the age of 14, when he spent 18 months in the Philippines playing a young soldier in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now.” Since then, he has won Tony, Drama Desk and Emmy awards, as well as an Academy Award nomination.

Fishburne’s latest challenge is “Thurgood,” his first one-man play, which opened last week at the Booth Theatre on Broadway. For 90 minutes with no intermission, he fills the stage as the late Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first black American to sit on the Supreme Court.

In a rehearsal hall off Times Square before the play entered previews, Fishburne, 46, was coolly confident and ready to test himself.

“So far, so good,” he said with a grin, before becoming more serious. “I mean, it’s a huge challenge. It’s a huge piece, and I’m very excited because I feel like it’s going to help me to grow. ... I’m going to have to use different parts of myself.”

Fishburne recounts Marshall’s life story through anecdotes and a heavy dose of humor. He takes the audience from his job waiting tables at a country club, through his advocacy during the civil rights movement, until his last day as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. The highlight is Marshall’s appearance before the Supreme Court as the NAACP’s lead counsel in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case.

The character is a departure for Fishburne. “He was a funny guy. He was hilarious,” he said of Marshall, who died in 1993. “And so, I get to use that side of myself and show a much lighter and more humorous side of myself in this role, because, you know, I’m not particularly known for being a funny guy.”

That, of course, is an understatement. Comedies are notably absent from Fishburne’s long list of movie credits. He is best known for his savage performance as Ike Turner in “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” which earned him the Oscar nod, and for his role as Morpheus, the steely action hero of the blockbuster “Matrix” trilogy.

In person, Fishburne leaves no doubt that he can command a stage. It’s not just his physical size — although he’s imposing even dressed casually in a black T-shirt and blue jeans — but also his intensity, which is only occasionally broken by a full-throated laugh that seems to shake the room.

Fishburne said he knew little about Marshall before meeting with director Leonard Foglia to discuss the role. “We sat down, we had some tea, talked about it,” Fishburne recalled. “And, you know, when I read it, I just thought the things that I learned about [Marshall’s] life and his work were to my mind so important, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do this.”