Will Anika Noni Rose & Sophie Okonedo Join Denzel Washington in A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway?

Are Tony winner Anika Noni Rose and Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo moving into the Younger household? According to Showbiz411.com, the actresses may join Tony and Oscar winner Denzel Washington in the previously rumored Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun. Kenny Leon, who directed Washington in Fences, will helm the new production, produced by Scott Rudin. Washington is eyeing the role of Walter Younger in the classic drama.

Lorraine Hansbury's A Raisin in the Sun tells the story of three generations of a family living and struggling together under one roof. The Youngers—Mama, her children Beneatha and Walter Lee, and his wife Ruth and their son Travis—live on Chicago's South Side in the 1950s. It is a place in which dreams, like the raisin in the Langston Hughes' poem from which the play takes its title, wither and die if nothing is done with them.

Rose recently appeared in the Encores! staging of The Cradle Will Rock. She won a 2004 Tony Award for her performance in Caroline, or Change, having previously appeared in Footloose. Rose followed up her Tony win with a starring role in the 2008 revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Her film credits include The Princess and the Frog, For Colored Girls and Dreamgirls. Okonedo received a 2004 Oscar nomination for her performance in Hotel Rwanda. Her other film credits include Aeon Flux, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Dirty Pretty Things and The Secret Life of Bees.

A Raisin in the Sun first premiered on Broadway on March 11, 1959 at the Barrymore Theatre. The play earned four Tony Award nominations including Best Play as well as acting nods for stars Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil. The 2004 revival won Tonys for Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald. The production starred Sean Combs as Walter in his Broadway debut.