Why Tonya Pinkins said yes to starring in ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ revival

NEW YORK — Tonya Pinkins is not a fan of revivals.

The Tony Award-winning star of Broadway musicals such as “Jelly’s Last Jam” and “Caroline, or Change” is known for publicly denouncing the idea of acting in shows that have already been done before.

But she eagerly signed on to co-star in The Public Theater’s revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s classic play “A Raisin in the Sun” after director Robert O’Hara said her character ― Lena Younger, the stoic matriarch of a struggling Chicago family — would anchor the new production.

“Robert told me what he wanted to do, and that we were not doing another Black mama on the couch play,” Pinkins told the Daily News. “I liked his vision. It was exciting and daring. Basically he said we could throw away everything we remember and love about it. And that he was not centering on Walter Lee, he was going to be centering on the women. And that really excited me.”

“A Raisin in the Sun” was the first play from a Black female playwright to be produced on Broadway. Hansberry, a Chicago native, was 29 years old in 1959 when the drama became a hit behind Sidney Poitier’s stellar performance.

Taking its title from a line in the 1951 Langston Hughes poem, “A Raisin in the Sun” centers on a working-class family living in an apartment on Chicago’s South Side. The Younger family consists of Lena, known as Mama, a proud and dignified widow, her frustrated son Walter Lee, his pregnant wife and young son, and his college student sister. Walter Lee’s dreams of being rich causes the conflict that drives the story, with Lena serving as a wise and nurturing counterpoint.

The role of Lena has been performed by actresses such as “The Cosby Show” star Phylicia Rashad in her Tony-winning 2004 turn, and LaTanya Richardson-Jackson 10 years later when she stepped in to replace Diahann Carroll in the second Broadway revival.

Pinkins, known for her work on the ABC soap opera “All My Children” and primetime series like “24″ and “Gotham,” said she wanted to present Lena in a way that has “never been seen before.”

“What I really wanted was for Lena to be a full woman that has all of the colors of the rainbow,” she said. “She’s everything — she’s funny, she’s emotional, she’s tough and she’s fragile. And I think it’s a very hard place to be, because everybody wants their mother to be this invincible kind of thing.”

Pinkins, a Chicago native, said her own experiences as a mother of grown children allowed her to step easily into the classic role.

“(When O’Hara) said we’re centering on the women, I was like, ‘great.’ I want to make this woman as full of a woman as I can get ... ,” Pinkins said.

“I have a 35-year-old son. I’m living with my 32-year-old son. I was just living with my daughter, so I know what it is like living with your adult children. I know all those things. I don’t have to do any research for that,” Pinkins added. “That is the truth of my life.”

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