We think you are going to love this 50th Anniversary Cast Album of “Raisin” the musical based on Lorraine Hansberry’s classic “A Raisin in The Sun”.

In 1975, the Raisin Cast Album won the Grammy for the Best Score from an original cast album. The 1974 Broadway show won the Tony for the Best Musical and Best Original Score. Our 2023 production, featuring 3-time Tony winner LaChanze (The Color Purple, Once on This Island, The Donna Summer Musical) brings the score into the 21st century.

Taken from the 2023 Axelrod Performing Arts Center production of the show, the recording, produced, engineered and mixed by Grammy award winner Burt Conrad, exudes the grit and grime of the emerging rhythm and blues and soul music of the late 1950s.

The story revolves around the Younger family, African Americans living in a cramped apartment in the south side of Chicago. Following the death of the father, the family receives a life insurance check, and each member has different ideas about how the money should be spent. Mama Lena wants to buy the family it’s own small house while son Walter, who is a chauffeur (“Runnin’ To Meet the Man”), wants to buy a liquor store as he sees it as a means to a better life. Mama is against the selling of liquor.

Tensions arise as Walter tries to convince Mama to forget her dream of buying the house (“A Whole Lotta Sunlight”). Walter decides to make the deal for the liquor store and signs the papers with his partners Bobo Jones and Willie Harris (“Booze”). Beneatha, Walter’s sister, is in college and is romantically involved with an African exchange student, Asagai (“Alaiyo”).

Ruth and Walter fight about their future but they reconcile (“Sweet Time”). Mama arrives to announce that she has bought a house in the white neighborhood of Clybourne Park, and Walter leaves in anger (“You Done Right”). Walter has not returned home and Mama finds him in a bar. She apologizes and gives him an envelope filled with money. She asks him to deposit $3,000 for Beneatha’s college education, and tells him the rest is for him.

As the family packs to move, a representative of Clybourne Park, Karl Lindner, arrives and offers to buy back the house. Walter, Ruth and Beneatha mockingly tell Mama of the enlightened attitude of their new neighbors (“Not Anymore”). Just then Bobo arrives to tell the family the bad news that Willie has run off with the money. This forces Walter to contact Lindner and accept the offer to buy back the house.

Although Beneatha berates her brother for not standing up for principles, Mama shows compassion and understanding (“Measure the Valleys”). When Lindner arrives, Walter announces that the family will, after all, move to the new house.

We hope you will enjoy this masterfully produced recording of “Raisin”, a poignant exploration of race, family and resilience set against a backdrop of 1950s America yet with so many timeless themes.