PLAYBILL ON OPENING NIGHT: A Raisin in the Sun Shines
By Harry Haun
27 Apr 2004
The three-time Tony winner will next lift her voice in song (as opposed to drama) June 4 at Carnegie Hall, no less. Next year, at the Jazz at Lincoln Center theatre, she and Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris will rekindle the Passion they recently did at Ravinia. And she's down for an operatic version of Jean Cocteau's The Human Voice in Houston ("I don't know why they printed that because it won't actually happen until 2006-2007.")
Rashad arrived at the party, totally transformed into her usual beautiful self. When she hits the stage of the Royale, she is unrecognizable—a completely different human being. "I fed the lie" is all the magic she'll give away. And, yes, she admitted her matriarch is a big drain on her dramatic juices. "It's like getting caught in a tornado eight times a week."
The true daddy at Puff Daddy's bash was David Aaron Baker, who came with son Lian strapped around his chest in a blanket. "He's six weeks today, young enough we can still take him to parties." Baker plays the one man "welcoming" committee who tries to bribe the Younger clan from coming into his all-white neighborhood—and he did it without the squeaky, milquetoast voice of John Fiedler, who did the part on stage, screen and TV.
"I never saw him," Baker confessed, "and I'm sorta relieved I didn't because Kenny Leon, the director, and I were able to work on a new version of the character. One of the things that Kenny said to me when I first met him at the audition was `This character has to be strong.' He wanted someone younger in the part, someone who was the same age as Walter, someone who was an equal with Walter so it wouldn't be a generational thing. It really would be just race. These two are really equals: unicorns with different skin color."
Runner up for new daddy: Brian Stokes Mitchell, who said he is taking some time off to enjoy his new status, having just finished his album and a television pilot in Los Angeles.
Leon, who has lately been toiling as an actor regionally in August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean, won't be sailing into Broadway in that show. Instead, he'll be directing Jessye Norman and Denyse Graves in Margaret Garner, the new Toni Morrison opera (music by Richard Danielpour) which will world premiere next spring in Philadelphia.
"The challenge for me with A Raisin in the Sun," he said, "was that they were all coming from such different places. I had to get them in the same room and treat them like a family and still make an ensemble. I never met anybody who worked as hard as Sean."
Most radiant face around was Janet Combs'. She, of course, always knew she'd given birth to a Broadway star: "Sean was born to be a star. He was born to be in the spotlight."
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The cast gives their opening night curtain call at the Royale Theatre
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| photo by Aubrey Reuben |
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