'Raisin in the Sun' TV Adaptation Premieres on ABC Feb. 25

The highly anticipated special three-hour television movie adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun will air as an "ABC Premiere Event" on Monday, February 25 (8-11PM Eastern), on the ABC Television Network; the evening after ABC airs the 80th annual Academy Awards Ceremony.

Reprising their roles of the award-winning Broadway revival for the TV-adaptation are famed musician/entrepreneur Sean Combs (Walter Lee, Jr.), with Emmy and Tony Award-winner Phylicia Rashad (Lena Younger), four-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald (Ruth), Tony Award nominee Sanaa Lathan (Beneatha), plus "ER" star John Stamos (Mr. Lindner).  Joining the cast are Sean Patrick Thomas as George Murchison, David Oyelowo as Joseph Asagai, Bill Nunn as Bobo and Cephas Jones as Willy Harris.

Executive producers are Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who brought Hairspray to the big-screen this summer.

"A Raisin in the Sun tells the story of a family living and struggling on Chicago's South Side in the 1950s," describe press notes, "A fiercely moving portrait of people whose hopes and dreams are constantly deferred, A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway. It premiered in 1959 with a cast that included Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Ruby Dee and Louis Gossett Jr. A Columbia Pictures feature with the same cast followed in 1961…

"The ground-breaking drama portrays a brief period of time in the life of the Younger family as they anxiously await the arrival of a $10,000 life insurance check made out to Lena Younger, the family matriarch, from the estate of her late husband, Walter Lee. Everyone in the family has their own ideas about how they plan to use their new-found wealth and are eager for their new lives to start."

Phylicia Rashad became the first African-American actress to ever win the Best Actress Tony Award for her role in Raisin. Audra McDonald won the Best Featured Actress Tony Award for her role in the play, and Sanaa Lathan was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress for her performance.  Sean Combs appeared opposite Halle Berry in "Monster's Ball" and made his acting debut in the film "Made."