P. Diddy comes to ABC TV
Los Angeles, February 19, 2008 Two years later, Combs is back in the mix, reuniting with Tony
winners Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald and Tony nominee Sanaa
Lathan for the ABC film version, which premieres Feb. 25 at 8 p.m.
ET.
Combs received mixed reviews for his theater performance, but he
believes he nailed it this time.
"It was more about experience and an understanding of how to
completely engulf yourself and become a character and really give
yourself up to the to the role," says Combs, an executive producer
with Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the Oscar-winning producers of
"Chicago."
Working with an acting coach, Combs, who has had small roles in
"Monster's Ball" and "Made," knew he had to stand on his own
with his Tony-winning co-stars.
"It was almost like what was going on in the house, that
struggle to be heard," Combs said. "I wanted to make sure my
character was heard."
Set in 1950s Chicago, the drama centers on the Younger family,
who anxiously await a $10,000 insurance check - and the ensuing
squabbles over how to spend it. Combs plays Walter Lee, a role made
famous by Sidney Poitier.
Looking to assert his manhood and to use the money to finance
his dreams of owning a business, Walter Lee finds himself at odds
with his widowed mother, Lena (Rashad), his ambitious sister,
Beneatha (Lathan) and long-suffering wife, Ruth (McDonald).
Director Kenny Leon said he cast Combs because "all the raw
instincts were there."
"This guy grew up poor," Leon said. "His dad was killed when
he was three. He lived in the house with all women. He's also one
of the wealthiest individuals that I know, so he's seen the other
side of the dream ... What better actor to really understand Walter
Lee?"
Rashad could see growth in her glamorous co-star.
"What I saw was a natural progression that comes with the doing
of it, with the working of it. He is a very disciplined
professional," says "The Cosby Show" star, who was the first
black woman to win a Tony as a leading actress.
"It was news to me," she says of the historic win for her
"Raisin" role. "My question was, Well, what happened? Nobody was
ever nominated before? I wondered why the reporters all had such
strange looks on their faces when I entered the press room, and
that question let me know."
The 1959 play was historic in its own right. "Raisin" was the
first drama by a black woman produced on Broadway.
"Lorraine Hansberry is one of those playwrights that sits in
the company of August Wilson or Tennessee Williams," says Leon.
"'Raisin in the Sun' is a specific story about this African
American family but has a universal appeal for all Americans."
The original Broadway cast featured Poitier, Claudia McNeil,
Ruby Dee, Diana Sands and Louis Gossett, Jr. - all reprised their
roles in the film two years later.
Besides the 1961 version, "Raisin" was adapted as a 1989
telefilm starring Danny Glover and Ester Rolle as Lena. All
involved with the current production hope a new generation will
embrace "Raisin" and its message: family is fundamental.
"Despite all the things they were going through, everybody
still had a strong relationship with each other," says Justin
Martin, 13, who plays Walter's son, Travis, in the film. "Any kind
of family can relate to this because everybody has family problems.
What's really important is sticking together."
It is the family love story, not just the race and class
dynamic, that was always at the heart of the story, says Dee.
"Lorraine was trying to write a play for a man struggling for
his freedom, his dignity, his self-respect ... his pride, and he
felt it was in buying his wife diamonds and moving into a white
neighborhood," says the "American Gangster" Academy Award
nominee. "He missed what pride and what being a human being is
about and the loving impulses that dictate all of that."
Dee, and her husband, the late Ossie Davis, supported the
"Raisin" revival.
"She came to the play like three times," says Lathan. "She
came backstage and was so encouraging. But we had several people
who had seen the original production and they were just amazed at
how the play still works ... but in a different way."
Emmy winner Paris Qualles ("Tuskeegee Airmen") adapted the
television script from Hansberry's unpublished screenplay
"Raisin" - which was ultimately not used for the 1961 film.
(Hansberry died four years later at 34 from cancer.)
Bridging the past and present was important to Leon, who
consulted the late Lloyd Richards, the play's original Broadway
director.
"We all realized that we wanted to be a part of history and
wanted to be part of carrying the baton," says Leon.
Combs even invited Poitier to lunch to "get his permission,"
he says. "It's like if somebody came and did 'Scarface.' They
should at least put in a courtesy call (to Al Pacino). So I called
him up and he was honored and he told me to do it my way."
---
On the Net:
www.abc.com