WRITER/DIRECTOR MALCOLM WASHINGTON (CENTER) WITH ACTORS RAY FISHER (LEFT) AND JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON ON THE SET OF “THE PIANO LESSON.” PHOTO BY KATIA WASHINGTON / NETFLIX.

At a key moment in “The Piano Lesson,” Boy Willie and his friend Lymon head out for a night on the town. They’re not going to just any Hill District hotspot, however — they’re on their way to the legendary Crawford Grill.

And in the new film adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer-winning play, the club and music venue is recreated in meticulous detail. According to director Malcolm Washington, reviving the venue on screen was key to recreating Pittsburgh in the 1930s.

“We looked at the ‘Teenie’ Harris photos, we went deep in those archives. We went deep into August Wilson’s personal archives. And I found out about the Crawford Grill and its importance in this neighborhood, its importance to the people here. And it felt like — if we’re gonna make something that honors these people, let’s recreate something that existed for their realities at this time.”

JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON AS BOY WILLIE IN “THE PIANO LESSON.” PHOTO BY DAVID LEE / NETFLIX

It’s a vivid moment in the adaptation, which Washington adapted along with co-screenwriter Virgil Williams. For Pittsburghers who grew up after the Crawford Grill’s heyday, it represents a chance to virtually walk into the venue in full swing — complete with a jazz band on stage, fronted in the film by Erykah Badu.

While “The Piano Lesson” is a drama (and a ghost story) rather than a musical, the trip to the Crawford Grill isn’t the only pivotal instance of music taking over the proceedings. Earlier, Boy Willie and Lymon sit around a table in the Hill District home of Doaker, played by Samuel L. Jackson, reflecting on the brutal years they endured at Parchman Farm, a prison farm in their native Mississippi. As the two generations begin to sing a working song remembered from their incarceration, the power — and anger of their treatment — erupts.

“It’s a very dark subject, and it’s traumatic. We’re seeing trauma bonding in a way — but they find a way to sing through it,” says John David Washington, who plays Boy Willie (and is Malcolm’s older brother). The characters, he says, “are victims of the prison system — of Parchment Farm, which is maintaining the dynamics of slavery through another mechanism. So it’s basically slavery. Unfortunately, that’s still sort of happening in the prison system.”

As the song gets louder, he says, “the memories get a little more vivid and it comes alive in your body — and then you need to stomp it out, dance it out.”

The older Washington appeared in an acclaimed 2022 Broadway revival of “The Piano Lesson.” That production also featured Michael Potts and Ray Fisher, who returned for the film version. For Jackson, who also appeared in the stage version, it was a return to the play — albeit in a new part. The famed actor played Boy Willie in the original staging of “The Piano Lesson”, returning nearly 40 years later to play Doaker.

That meant that John David Washington was standing across the stage from the actor who originated the Boy Willie character. He says it was remarkable, if somewhat imposing, to revive the character while acting alongside the actor who first gave it life.

“The great LaTanya Richardson Jackson, who directed the play on Broadway — the first African American woman who directed an August Wilson play on Broadway — gave him strict instructions not to talk to me about the character. Whether he followed [those instructions] or not, I won’t say. But in all honesty, it was very intimidating speaking these words back to him. At the same time, I felt welcomed [by] both he and Michael Potts.”

The film adaptation of “The Piano Lesson” is the third of Wilson’s plays produced for the screen by Denzel Washington, Malcolm and John David’s father. Unlike “Fences” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” this film was not shot in Pittsburgh. For Malcolm Washington, however, the city was essential to the production, even if it meant recreating a portion of the Hill District in Atlanta.

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“There’s moments in the creative process where you just catch a stride or something changes, and you just have this huge leap. That big leap, for me, was coming to Pittsburgh … We came to Pittsburgh. Came to the Hill. Came to August Wilson’s house — and we were trying to get an understanding of the spirit of this place. Understand the community that we’re talking about, the people that we’re talking about.

“I have so much love for this place. It was something that we really wanted to honor in the work — making a film about this specific community that they could see themselves in. Even though we weren’t able to film here, which I was sad about, I was able to bring my production designer here. We marched the streets; we recreated a city block that we saw here and built it in Atlanta.”

The passion the brothers share for Wilson’s work — and its city — is evident, regardless of where “The Piano Lesson” was made. And when they’re asked about their favorite plays among Wilson’s 10-play century cycle, their answer is passionate.

“Nobody’s gonna like my answer, but it’s this one,” John David says, citing “The Piano Lesson” as his favorite on the page as well as the stage and screen.

“So much of us is in this thing,” Malcolm adds. “We can’t separate it.”

“The Piano Lesson” opens exclusively at Waterworks Cinema on Nov. 7. It will stream on Netflix beginning Nov. 22.