"A Raisin in the Sun" TV adaptation of 2004 Revival at 8PM on ABC- Page 3

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 8:10am

Riviting.

Spectacular even.

Audra and Phylicia were to amazing for words. But come on. We all knew they would be

Sean wasn't bad, it was just... the women acted circles around him and made his perfromance seem... dull? Not really the right word. He stuck out like a sore thumb, but not really in a bad way. If he is serious about acting, he needs to do more and do it now while this is fresh. And none of those type-cast movies, either.

Wish I had been able to see this live and in person on Broadway Tried to get a ticket and couldn't. At least when I had the opportunity.

[westcoast_wannabe]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 8:36am

I can't help but think this could have been much stronger staring Don Cheadle. I thought it was briliant and probably liked Sean Combs more than most people did, but I'd have rather seen a real actor in the role who could have delivered an amazing performance as opposed to a rapper who could just hold his own.

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 8:40am

can someone who saw the revival tell me if bernetha cut her hair? the tv movie cut that part of the play and i was wondering if it was changed in the revival too.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 9:03am

It would have been much better starring any capable actor, rather than Executive Producer Sean Combs. He joins Keanu Reeves and Hayden Christensen as the Great Incompetents of the Age. His Walter Lee was an embarassment, a petulant idiot who didn't make me believe he could run anything like a liquor store. His complaints about being a chauffeur fell rather flat, as I never believed that this guy was capable of anything more than opening and closing car doors all day.

It didn't help matters that each high emotional moment was followed by a commercial break, and things got really bad in the final hour, where we got 5 minutes of commercials every ten minutes.

There were some other changes, too. Phylicia Rashad, as very very very good as she was, came off more as the all-knowing Positive Matriarch in the film, while there were other less flattering shadings on stage, more glowing smiles and knowing twinkles. The edge wasn't entirely gone, but it had been softened considerably.

[Testing1232]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 9:36am

Agreed... the entire cast (with the exception of Diddy) was excellent !! Stamos, in a very small part, was very good !

The chemistry between Audra and Diddy was horrible !

[sweetiedarlinmia]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 10:12am

The revival had Beneatha cutting her hair and I'm not pleased they cut it from the movie. Cutting that from the movie completely alters her character arc. Beneatha's central struggle is in defining herself, particularly as an African American woman, and cutting her hair is her external reconciliation of who she is and what she believes. Without it, her scornfully talking about assimilation seems empty. And, to me, it alters the cultural significance of her character.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 10:29am

Well, the whole film was turned into the Sean Combs show. He got more lingering loving closeups of that terribly inexpressive face than anyone else did. Audra MacDonald's big scene, her joyful reaction to the news about the house, was completely ruined by a bad camera angle and a cutaway to a typically inert closeup of Combs.

Did anyone notice those commercials they ran during the Oscars, the ones that mentioned Sean Combs ad nauseam but never gave the names of anyone else in the cast?

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 10:32am

Was he the only available star to do the revival back in '04? I mean, out of so many fantastic BO stars of today (Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, to mention a few), why did they pick Sean Combs?
I haven't seen the movie yet so I'm withholding judgment but I have always wondered that.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 10:35am

Combs executive produced both the revival and the film. A shame. Just imagining what Taye Diggs or Jeffrey Wright would have done with the role only makes me sadder about what went down, that a fine American play has been turned into an ego-trip for The Person Formerly Known As Diddy.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 10:36am

Washington and Whittaker are too old. My guess is that Combs was probably one of the reasons the revival happened at all.

I enjoyed it. I thought Combs was fine, if a little bland, I had no issues with Stamos at all, and I agree that all the women were phenomenal. That cry that Rashad let out after she finds out Walter lost the money was chilling.

[uncageg]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 11:20am

I will throw my questions out there again...did they cut Walter's drunken "rant" in the apartment last night and replace it with him sitting in the bar? And did they cut or "slice up" Rashad's monologue from the second act? Or did I miss something?

[Roscoe]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 11:37am

Which drunken rant? They definitely cut the scene of Walter's play-acting as an African warrior, but I don't remember if that's a drunken rant or not.

[sidjones09]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 11:50am

"Which drunken rant? They definitely cut the scene of Walter's play-acting as an African warrior, but I don't remember if that's a drunken rant or not."

That is the drunken rant to which uncage is referring. It was cut, and the scene in the bar was taken from one of the scenes in the original movie with Poitier and McNeil. They added a bar scene in that film as well, although the dialogue was different.

I didn't appreciate the editing of Beneatha's haircut, or of severely cutting Ruth's monologue about how they have to leave the house, after Lena says there is no way it can be done now that the money's gone. In my opinion that's one of the most important moments in the show for her character, and right when it was about to let loose, here comes Diddy.

Having said all that, I still enjoyed it. But in my opinion no film will beat the original. One of my favorite movies. That last scene has never hit me like it does in that film and it gets me everytime, and I've seen 4 different productions on the stage and all the film versions.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 12:01pm

Was Beneatha's haircut in the revival? I thought that was one of the scenes that normally isn't in a staged production.

[sweetiedarlinmia]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 12:11pm

The haircut was in the revival.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 12:16pm

They killed the whole thing with all of those commercial breaks.

[uncageg]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 12:21pm

Thanks sid. That is what I was thinking of. it has been so long since I have seen it. And I still think they cut down the mother's long monologue.

[MCfan2]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 12:22pm

Why does Beneatha cut her hair in the play? Sorry if I sound like an idiot -- I've never read the play or seen it onstage.

[uncageg]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 12:26pm

The commercial breaks were a pain. And I agree, I was tired of the Tyler Perry commercials. They are all over the place as it is.

[sidjones09]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 12:27pm

Beneatha cuts her hair in the play in order to feel more connected to her African heritage. Assagai has really got her to thinking about where she came from in the historic sense of her family.

You really should read the play. It is my favorite, and there are several different versions of it, but I would read Lorraine Hansberry's original unedited first.

[MCfan2]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 12:29pm

Thanks. I'll do that when I get a chance. I used to love reading plays, but I haven't read any lately.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 12:32pm

Why do people keep getting hung up on the commercial breaks? If you don't have a dvr and can't start it an hour or so in, why not just wait till it's over and watch it?

You know, I really thought I wanted to see that Angela Bassett movie, because I love her so and it was nice to see her headling a movie, but once I saw Madea in it I knew I wouldn't be able to take it.

[sweetiedarlinmia]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 12:33pm

Asagai mentions to her that by wearing her hair permed she is in essence assimilating into the dominant society because it is not in it's natural state. This is a very jarring revelation for her since she has committed herself to not assimilating and to exhibiting pride in her heritage, yet she is the physical manifestation of assimilation. In order to reconcile her beliefs with her physical statement, she decides to cut her hair in to a short afro, thus returning it to it's natural state. The cutting of her hair is her own personal revolution & evolution as a person. SOO cutting it from the movie removes a large part of who Beneatha is at the end of the play.

(edit: oops you beat me to it!)
Updated On: 2/26/08 at 12:33 PM

[uncageg]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 1:21pm

There seemed to be a lot of commercials. The show felt so segmented and the commercials kind of broke the flow of the movie. I, for one, do not own a DVR.I am not a record it and watch it later person. If I want to see something, I make schedule my time to be in front of the TV when it is actually being aired.

Updated On: 2/26/08 at 01:21 PM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/26/08 at 1:31pm

Then you must suffer the consequences!