Denzel Washington Takes Broadway by Storm in Raisin in the Sun
In a video interview with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts, the actor talked about his Broadway history. Two-time Oscar and Tony winner Denzel Washington begins performances in the Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. Directed by Kenny Leon, the show will play a limited engagement through June 15, with opening night set for April 3.
Joining Washington in the cast are LaTanya Richardson Jackson (Mama), Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo (Ruth), Tony winner Anika Noni Rose (Beneatha), Tony nominee Stephen McKinley Henderson, David Cromer, Jason Dirden, Sean Patrick Thomas and Bryce Clyde Jenkins.
Originally produced in 1959, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway, where it won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play. The Washington Post has called it “one of a handful of great American dramas. A Raisin in the Sun belongs in the inner circle, along with Death of a Salesman and Long Day’s Journey into Night.” The New York Times has hailed it as “the play that changed American theatre forever.”
A Raisin in the Sun opens April 3, 2014 at the Barrymore Theatre on Broadway 55 years after it won the 1959 Drama Critics’ Circle Award.