Agencies

New York:

Sean Combs, the one-time bad boy of American rap music, has taken on a new role: Serious Broadway actor. Combs, who is better known by his rap name P Diddy, has been cast to play the lead role in a theatre version of Lorraine Hansberry’s acclaimed race relations play ‘A Raisin in the Sun’.

The role of Walter Lee Younger, the struggling father at the centre of the story, was first made famous by Sidney Poitier. The play depicts the trials of a black family trying to move into a white suburb and was a huge hit when it first appeared in 1959. The New York Times dubbed it the play that “changed American theatre for ever.”

Combs will make his debut this week at New York’s Royale Theatre alongside more famed stage actors such as Tony winner Audra McDonald. It is not the first time that Combs has acted. He had brief roles in two Hollywood films, including the Oscar-winning ‘Monster’s Ball’.

However, he is better known in the music industry where he has had success as a rapper and producer. His trademark flamboyant clothes and lifestyle, in addition to a tempestuous relationship with actress Jennifer Lopez, have made him a staple of tabloid newspapers.

Meanwhile Jennifer Lopez reportedly went flower-showering on P Diddy to wish him luck for his this debut. The music diva, who got engaged and then split with Diddy in 2001, also called on him in his dressing room as he prepared for his first night playing Walter Lee Younger in the play ‘A Raisin in the Sun’.

“She was ushered into the auditorium after wishing him luck in his dressing room. They were wrapped in each other’s arms as Jen psyched him up for his big debut,” Britain’s Daily Star quoted sources as saying.