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Combs a Producer on ABC’s ‘Raisin in the Sun’

May 23, 2006  •  Post A Comment

ABC will broadcast a TV movie version of the 2004 Tony-winning Broadway revival “A Raisin in the Sun.” Sean Combs, who starred in the revival and will reprise his role for the TV movie, is producing along with Craig Zadan and Neil Meron’s Storyline Entertainment.

The cast will also include the revival’s Sanaa Lathan and Tony winners Audra McDonald and Phylicia Rashad.

“A Raisin in the Sun” was the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. It premiered in 1959 with a cast that included Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Ruby Dee and Louis Gossett Jr. A Columbia Pictures feature version with the same cast followed in 1961.

Storyline Entertainment, Mr. Combs’ Bad Boy World Wide Entertainment Group and Sony Pictures Television will produce, along with “Raisin’s” Broadway producers Carl Rumbaugh, Susan Batson and David Binder. Kenny Leon, who received a Drama Desk nomination for outstanding director for his staging of the play on Broadway, will be making his film debut with this movie. Screenwriter Paris Qualles (“Tuskeegee Airmen”) will adapt Lorraine Hansberry’s play and screenplay for the TV movie version.