McDonald, Rashad join 'Raisin' revival

Esparza taking lead in Worth Street's 'Normal Heart'

By ROBERT HOFLER

Audra McDonald and Phylicia Rashad join Sean Combs for the upcoming Broadway revival of "A Raisin in the Sun."

Lorraine Hansberry's play opened on Broadway in 1959 and starred Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee and Claudia McNeil.

Kenny Leon directs the revival, which goes into previews in March and opens the following month.

Meanwhile, Raul Esparza will take the lead role of Ned Weeks in the Worth Street Theater's production of "The Normal Heart." Larry Kramer's play about the AIDS crisis opened at the Public Theater in 1985. The upcoming revival also plays the Public, with previews beginning in April. Jeff Cohen directs.

Esparza performs in "Taboo" on Broadway; that tuner shutters Feb. 8.

And Joanna Gleason is the latest addition to the starry February workshop of tuner "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels." She joins Brian Stokes Mitchell, Norbert Leo Butz, Christine Ebersole and Sherie Rene Scott. Jack O'Brien directs the new musical by Jeffrey Lane and David Yazbek.

World preem is set for this fall at San Diego's Old Globe Theater.