NEW YORK — Lorraine Hansberry’s play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” will be revived this fall.
The Public Theater has announced that its upcoming off-Broadway production, helmed by Robert O’Hara, is set to play in its Newman Theater from Sept. 27 to Nov. 6.
Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins will join Francois Battiste in leading the cast in the three-act play.
Pinkins, who has starred in Broadway productions of “Jelly’s Last Jam,” “Caroline, Or Change” and “Holler, If Ya Hear Me,” will portray Lena “Mama” Younger, the stoic matriarch of a Chicago-based clan.
Actress Claudia McNeil originated the role on Broadway in 1959 and in the beloved film adaptation, which starred Sidney Poitier.
“The Cosby Show” star Phylicia Rashad made Broadway history with her star turn as the character, becoming the first African American woman to win the Tony Award for best actress in a play in 2004. Ten years later, LaTanya Richardson-Jackson scored her very first Tony Award nomination when she replaced Diahann Carroll in the second Broadway revival of “A Raisin in the Sun” starring Denzel Washington and directed by Kenny Leon.
Battiste previously starred opposite Rashad in Oscar winner Tarrell Alvin McCraney’s “Head of Passes” at The Public Theater in 2017.
Reps for the revival — the first time Hansberry’s work is being produced at the landmark venue — describe the production as a “fresh look at a classic.”
“I am filled with curiosity and excitement by what this tremendous cast that The Public has assembled will bring to a play I consider simply the best ever written,” O’Hara said in Monday’s announcement.
In 2020, the 52-year-old Cincinnati native garnered a Tony Award nomination for directing Jeremy O. Harris’ controversial “Slave Play.” As a playwright, his first play “Insurrection: Holding History” was produced at The Public Theater in 1996. O’Hara, who wrote 2014′s “Bootycandy” would later return to the Astor Place-based theater in 2015 to premiere “Barbecue.”
The very first performance of “A Raisin in the Sun” will offer free tickets to the public through the company’s Joseph Papp Free Performance initiative with a TodayTix lottery.
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