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General tickets go on sale today, September 21, for Tony Award-winner and two-time Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington as Walter Lee Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, opposite film, television and Tony Award-winning stage star Diahann Carroll as Lena Younger, in her first Broadway appearance in over 30 years. The production will be directed by Tony Award-nominee Kenny Leon. Previews begin March 8, 2014, with opening night on April 3, 2014 at the Barrymore Theatre (243 West 47th Street), where the original production of A Raisin in the Sun opened 55 years ago. A Raisin in the Sun is a limited engagement, running 14 weeks only through June 15, 2014. Tickets will be available at www.telecharge.com or by calling Telecharge.com at 212-239-6200.
The production will also star Academy Award-nominee Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda) making her Broadway debut as Ruth Younger, Tony Award-winner Anika Noni Rose (Caroline, or Change) as Beneatha Younger, Stephen Tyrone Williams (Lucky Guy) as Joseph Asagai, Jason Dirden (Fences) as George Murchison, and Tony Award-nominee Stephen McKinley Henderson (Fences) as Bobo.
Recently announced to join the cast are David Cromer, who directed and starred in the Obie Award-winning production of Our Town and has also directed acclaimed productions of Tribes, The House of Blue Leaves and The Adding Machine, as Karl Lindner, and 13-year-old Bryce Clyde Jenkins, (The To-Do List, Easy A), who will make his Broadway debut as Travis Younger.
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".
Set on Chicago's South Side, A Raisin in the Sun revolves around the divergent dreams and conflicts within three generations of the Younger family: son Walter Lee (Denzel Washington), his wife Ruth (Sophie Okonedo), his sister Beneatha (Anika Noni Rose), his son Travis (Bryce Clyde Jenkins) and matriarch Lena, called Mama (Diahann Carroll). When her deceased husband's money comes through, Mama dreams of moving to a new home and a better neighborhood in Chicago. Walter Lee, a chauffeur, has other plans: buying a liquor store and being his own man. Beneatha dreams of medical school. The tensions and prejudice they face form this seminal American drama.
Scenic design is by Mark Thompson. Costume design is by Ann Roth. Lighting design is by Brian MacDevitt.
A RAISIN IN THE SUN will be produced by Scott Rudin.
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