Audra McDonald Deserves An Emmy



The Corsair just saw A Raisin in the Sun via TiVo yesterday. How brilliant was it? Michael Anderson, a former editor at The New York times Book Review, hipped us to the Ibsenish dimensions of this book years ago, by the fascinating and all-but-forgotten author Lorraine Hainsberry.

ABC's impressive production, starring P Diddy (wooden), Sanaa Lathan (smart), Phylicia Rashad (solid), and the magnificent Audra McDonald, who turned a particularly good performance, was the best thing on network television in years. For a while The Corsair thought he was watching PBS, or Showtime. But, no, it was actually on network television.

The claustrophobic living room is here most of the drama takes place. The women -- Phylicia, Sanaa, Audra -- are the engine that drive the work. From Blues to Jazz in 60 seconds.

Networks used to experiment. Remember Woody Allen's teleplay Don't Drink The Water? Let's hope this is not the end -- and just the beginning -- of network's making these experiments in teevee.