By Matt Roush
The network TV-movie is only dead until the next group of dedicated art-ists comes along to breathe life into it. And life abounds—in all of its frus-trations and hopes, fears and joys—in ABC’s intimate and powerfully mov-ing remake of Lorraine Hansberry’s stage classic “A Raisin in the Sun,” reuniting the main cast of the 2004 Broadway revival. (See page 26.) This means everyone will now get to witness Phylicia Rashad’s magnif-icent Tony-winning performance as Lena Younger, the widowed matriarch and backbone of a family of conflicted dreamers, trapped in a cramped Chicago tenement that be-comes a tinderbox of explosive emotions. An instant front-runner for every major TV-acting prize, Rashad radiates warmth, but also the sort of proud fire that’s neces-sary to keep her family in line as they impatiently await a $10,000 insurance check that could change their lives. The superstar-marquee draw of the revival was Sean Combs as Lena’s ambitious son, Walter Lee, and his work plays better in close-up than it did on stage, where his sulkiness often got lost. On screen, it registers as heavy disappointment and restless resentment at the setbacks he’s faced in his yearning for security and respect. You may never believe this Walter Lee is a “volcano” the way Sidney Poitier was in the original, but Combs is more convincing as a weak man and poor loser—albeit one who will never truly be lost, so long as the women in his life have a say. As they always do. The women are the main event here, including the wonder-ful Audra McDonald (also a Tony winner) as Walter Lee’s long-suffering wife and Sanaa Lathan as his spunky sister. It would take a hard heart not to root for this family, to cry with them or to rejoice when they finally get their moment in the sun. Phylicia Rashad is a front-runner for every major tv-acting prize, radiating both warmth and fire A Raisin in the Sun Is a Jewel in ABC’s Crown. Money makes all thedifference—or does it? A Raisin in the Sun monday, 2/25, 8/7c

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