A Raisin in the Sun
abc banks on diddy
2008-02-20
By Ronda Racha Penrice

Now when Atlanta-based theatre maverick Kenny Leon proposed reviving A Raisin in the Sun, the play penned by Lorraine Hansberry that, in 1959, became the first drama by a Black woman produced on Broadway, many doubted it would succeed. What relevance did a Civil Rights-era play that many believed was about a Black family trying to move into a white neighborhood have for generation now? Of particular concern was Leon’s controversial decision to cast Sean “Diddy” Combs as Walter Lee Younger, Jr., the role Sidney Poitier made famous.

Some also doubted veteran actress Phylicia Rashad, mainly because her great turn as Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show seemed so effortless it obscured her considerable theatrical background and dramatic talent. Luckily, the Tony Awards recognized her masterful performance and she, in 2004, became the first Black actress ever to win the Tony for ‘Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play,” a shocking fact for the 21st century.

Combs didn’t fare as well. Critics slaughtered his performance. Young, urban audiences, however, flocked to Broadway, allowing the play to return its $2.4 million capitalization in just two months. That success got ABC’s attention so executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, noted for the Oscar-winner “Chicago” starring another hip-hop star, joined forces with Combs, who stars in and co-executive produces this film version of A Raisin in the Sun, premiering Monday, February 25, 2008, the night after the Oscars. Because Poitier reprised his Broadway role for the first film adaptation in 1961, there’s yet another shadow dogging Combs.

Let’s be clear: Diddy is not Sidney Poitier. Nor should we expect him to be. Talent like Sidney Poitier’s is like a meteor striking earth; it just doesn’t happen often. But, in my opinion, Diddy works for this new adaptation, which is very film-rich, taking the action beyond just the apartment that’s so prominent in the play. Diddy thinks he knows why.

“Some people think that maybe I may not be able to relate because I've had a little bit of success,” Diddy recently explained to a group of journalists, “but I feel I was destined to play this role because my father was killed when I was three years old and I grew up in a house with three women, my mother, my grandmother and my sister. I went through those years of having to watch my mother and my grandmother work two jobs and not being able to take care of my family and seeing the look on my mother's face when I would ask for things that she couldn't afford.”

Helping him communicate that angst is the masterful Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, who won her fourth Tony as a featured actress playing his wife, Ruth Younger, and Sanaa Lathan, who plays Walter’s sister Beneatha. The real glue, however, is the film’s timeless message. In 2004, weeks after she won her Tony, Phylicia Rashad told me that she, like so many others, had misinterpreted this play. Longtime friend and Raisin’s Broadway and film director Kenny Leon explained to her that the play was about the family dynamic.

“The play is about the difference in generation, the difference in thought,” she schooled me. “The play is about a younger generation coming to accept the values of the parent because those values are true and . . . they’re rooted in love. They’re rooted in the assertion that dignity is maintained, that dignity is an honor or upheld when you hold true to keeping that family together and coming through together as a family because that takes a lot of work and that’s what the real work is.”

Given the chasm between the Civil Rights and the hip-hop generations, Raisin couldn’t be more appropriate. Diddy works so well because, like Walter, the hip-hop generation is constantly accused of placing bling over hardcore family values. The perception is that the love of money has supplanted the love of family. Thus, it’s his real life experiences as hip-hop posterchild, spokesperson and ambassador is what allows him to breathe new breath into his film performance, a much improved one since his Broadway debut in 2004. We feel his hunger, his desperation to feel important in this world and we understand it.

Diddy, himself, doesn’t just recognize the historic significance of Raisin but, like Rashad and Leon, values the critical lessons his participation can impart to his hip-hop peers and admirers. “I think the core message [in this film] for this generation is love of family and that, at the end of the day, when things are rough, and the chips are down, your family is going to be there,” he says. “You have the line in there about "Money is life." That's something that this generation kind of believes because this is the world that we were brought up in. And I think this [Raisin] brings it down to that reality, just like it's brought a lot of hip hop stars, even myself, to the reality that there is more than that, that family is life and love is life.” And those values never wear thin, on stage, in our living rooms or in our daily lives.

Veteran freelance writer and self-diagnosed television junkie Ronda Racha Penrice is the author of African American History For Dummies, which includes a chapter on film and television as well as theatre and dance.