Guide Note

The ABC television movie, A Raisin in the Sun, is an adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning play by the same name about an African-American family struggling with poverty and racism in Chicago's South Side in the 1950's . The television version aired on February 25, 2008 as an ABC World Premiere Movie Event.

Fast Facts

1. Directed by: Kenny Leon
2. Teleplay by: Paris Qualles
3. Starring: Sean Combs, Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, John Stamos, and Sanaa Lathan
4. Play version debuted on Broadway in 1959
5. First play written by a black woman to be produced on Broadway
6. Title comes from a Langston Hughes poem, Harlem
7. Sidney Poitier starred in the original Broadway cast

Many Raisins in the Sun

Originally a Broadway play in the late 1950s, the story was soon turned into a screenplay by Hansberry and a black and white film version was released in 1961 starring Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier. The film garnered critics awards and Poitier was nominated for a Golden Globe. In 1973 a musical version of the play was created by Lansberry's husband Robert Nemiroff called [[Raisin], winning the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1974. Over ten years later the first television movie version would be made starring Danny Glover and Esther Rolle.