Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Starts Production On TV Version Of ‘Raisin In The Sun’

Sean "Diddy" Combs is transferring his Broadway experience to the small screen in a new television movie adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun.Production recently started on the three-hour feature in Toronto, Canada. The feature will air on ABC during the 2007 season.Combs, who received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Walter Lee […]

Sean

"Diddy" Combs is transferring his Broadway experience to the small screen

in a new television movie adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the

Sun.Production

recently started on the three-hour feature in Toronto, Canada. The feature will

air on ABC during the 2007 season.Combs,

who received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Walter Lee Jr. in the theatrical

version of the drama, will reunite with fellow castmates Phylicia Rashad, Audra

McDonald and Sanaa Lathan. John

Stamos for the TV reworking.Set

in the 1950s, A Raisin in the Sun follows a family living and struggling

on Chicago’s South Side, in a moving portrait of people whose hopes and dreams

are constantly deferred.

It was the first play written by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway.

The

play’s original cast included Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Ruby

Dee and Louis Gossett Jr. when it premiered in 1959. A Columbia Pictures feature

version of the production with the same cast followed in 1961.The

drama’s latest Broadway run resulted in a Best Actress Tony Award for Rashad,

a Best Featured Actress Tony Award for McDonald and a Best Featured Actress Tony

nomination for Lathan.The

ABC film will be produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the pair that executive

produced the Oscar-winning film, Chicago. Sean

Combs’ Bad Boy World Wide Entertainment Group and Sony Pictures Television will

also serve as executive producers.Kenny

Leon, who received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Director for his staging

of the play on Broadway, will be make his film debut with the movieThe

drama’s TV adaptation is the latest acting achievement for Combs, who made his

acting debut in the film Made and appeared in Monster’s Ball, which

starred Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton.