A RAISIN IN THE SUN
The Shubert Organization
Ethel Barrymore Theatre and Belasco Theatre
New York City, NY
Opening-March 11, 1959
Closing-June 25, 1960
Directed: Lloyd Richards
Designed: Ralph Alswang
Costumes: Virginia Volland
Lighted: Ralph Alswang
Sound Design: Masque Sound Engineering Company
Cast:
Sidney Poitier – Walter Lee Younger (Brother)
Ruby Dee – Ruth Younger
Glynn Turman – Travis Younger
Diana Sands – Beneatha Younger
Claudia McNeil – Lena Younger (Mother)
Ivan Dixon – Joseph Asagai
Louis Gossett – George Murchison
John Fiedler – Karl Lindner
Lonne Elder III – Bobo
Douglas Turner Ward, Ed Hall – Moving Men
Studio portrait of David Cogan, playwright Lorraine Hansberry, Lloyd Richards, Philip Rose and Sidney Poitier from the original 1959 Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun [NYPL]
A scene from the play. Ruby Dee as Ruth, Claudia McNeil as Lena, Glynn Turman as Travis, Sidney Poitier as Walter, and John Fiedler as Karl Lindner.
A Raisin in the Sun gained huge success despite it being produced by Philip Rose, a man that had never produced a play before and has very little interest from large investors early on. The production was first played in New Haven, Philadelphia, and Chicago, before eventually opening at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959, in New York City. It ran there for 530 performances and made Lorraine Hansberry the first African American woman to write a play that was produced on Broadway. A Raisin in the Sun, also made Lloyd Richards, an actor and the dean of the Yale School of Drama from 1979 to 1991, the first African American to direct a play on Broadway since 1907.
The Broadway show, as well as the film adaptation made in 1961 of A Raisin in the Sun, included prominent Black actors and moguls such as Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, and Glynn Turman.
Sidney Poitier and Glynn Turman [NYPL]
Sidney Poitier in an exuberant moment from the 1961 film of A Raisin in the Sun, with actresses Diana Sand and Ruby Dee. All three had appeared in the original Broadway production.
The 1959 New York Drama Critics Awards being presented by John McClain to Lorraine Hansberry, Friedrich Dürrenmatt and Robert Dhéry [NYPL]
