The cast supporting Tony Award-winning Denzel Washington and Diahann Carroll has been selected for Lorraine Hansberry’s play, “A Raisin in the Sun.”
Carroll will be making her first Broadway appearance in 30 years as Lena (Mama.) Joining the cast will be David Cromer, as Karl Lindner. Also new to the cast is 13-year-old Bryce Clyde Jenkins, who will Broadway debut as Travis Younger. Stephen Tyrone Williams will play Nigerian student, Joseph. Jason Dirden, and Stephen Mckinley Henderson finalize the cast, but their characters are unknown.
Already cast, is Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo, making her Broadway debut as Walter’s wife Ruth, and Tony Award-winner Anika Noni Rose as Walter’s younger sister Beneatha.
Kenny Leon will be directing and Scott Rudin will be producing. The show will run for 14 weeks beginning March 9 at the Barrymore Theatre, which is where the original production opened in 1959.
“A Raisin in the Sun” is set on Chicago’s South Side, and revolves around the divergent dreams and conflicts within three generations of the Younger family: son Walter Lee (Washington), his wife Ruth (Sophie Okonedo), his sister Beneatha (Anika Noni Rose), his son Travis, and matriarch Lena, called Mama (Carroll). When her deceased husband’s money comes through, Mama dreams of using it to move her family to a better neighborhood and a real home. Walter Lee has plans to use the cash to buy a liquor store and be his own man.
Check out Washington during his award-winning Broadway performance in “Fences” in the video below.
