Karen Ocamb: A Raisin in the Sun Producer Craig Zadan on the Movie's Gay Subtext

Let's be honest: most people will probably tune into ABC's drama A Raisin in the Sun tonight to see if Sean "P-Diddy" Combs can act. He can. In fact, the entire cast is achingly brilliant. See the excellent New York Times review here . And with the 40th anniversaries of the assassinations of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy coming up - and the new "I have a dream" candidate Barack Obama trying to turn a political campaign into a movement for social change, many might think that the dream deferred -- the "raisin" of the title from black gay poet Langston Hughes' poem "Harlem" ("What happens to a dream deferred?/Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?") -- is outdated. It's not. Racism is still rampant, the film's gay co-producer Craig Zadan points out. So is homophobia and the closet -- one of the subtexts of the original play written by African American lesbian Lorraine Hansberry. Lorraine Hansbery "is one of the most famous lesbian playwrights who nobody knew was ... (link)