Raisin in the Sun, A

Raisin in the Sun, A (1959), a play by Lorraine Hansberry. [Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 530 perf.; NYDCC Award.] Lena Younger ( Claudia McNeil) lives with her son, Walter ( Sidney Poitier); his wife, Ruth ( Ruby Dee); and their young son in a two‐room apartment in the Chicago ghetto. Lena hopes to use the $10,000 she will receive from her late husband's life insurance policy to move her family into a house in a nice neighborhood. But the house she has her eye on is in a white part of town, and the neighbors send a representative to the Youngers to try and buy the property back. But Lena stands firm; and even after Walter loses some of the money trying to invest in a liquor store, the family prepares to move. Hansberry based her play on personal experience, her African‐American family having gone through a similar dilemma when they tried to move into one of Chicago's better neighborhoods. The play was a landmark of sorts, being the first time an African‐American female playwright was produced on Broadway. The fact that it had a black director, Lloyd Richards, was also a first. Producer Philip Rose found no New York theatre was available, so the production toured to Philadelphia, New Haven, and Chicago, getting such an enthusiastic response that it finally arrived on Broadway. Business was slow at first but gradually picked up with positive word of mouth. It remains one of the finest of American dramas and is frequently revived regionally and Off Broadway. The play was later made into the musical RAISIN (1973) with a score by Judd Woldin (music) and Robert Brittan (lyrics) and featuring Virginia Capers as Lena and Joe Morton as Walter. Hansberry's husband, Robert Nemiroff, produced it and worked on the libretto, which adhered to the original very closely. The musical ran 847 performances at the 46th Street Theatre, winning the Tony Award. Notable songs: A Whole Lotta Sunshine; Measure the Valleys; Sidewalk Tree. Lorraine HANSBERRY (1930–65) was born in Chicago's South Side where her father was an early civil rights leader. She studied at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Guadalajara in Mexico, and Roosevelt University. In 1950 Hansberry moved to New York to pursue her writing career, finding success with Raisin in the Sun but less so with The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window (1964). After her untimely death from cancer, Nemiroff, also a respected writer, completed her unfinished play Les Blancs in 1970 and compiled a program of her works called To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, which has often been produced.