The results are in for ABC’s tele-play, “Raisin in the Sun,” starring Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sanaa Lathan and it turns out that it didn’t do too bad. That’s an understatement, of course, as it held the number one spot in prime time ratings, followed by NBC’s “Deal or No Deal.” So, “how did Diddy do,” you ask? Well, he’s now going “bicoastal” as he plans to move to Los Angeles to seriously pursue his acting career.

I watched bits and pieces of the film and Diddy did pretty good. Like Common, he needs to just come out of his shell. It was his first major role and he’s following in the footsteps of Sidney Portier’s stage rendition of the role of Walter Lee.

LA Times Full Review

Combs does a fair enough job hitting his marks, and he has successfully made himself into a working-class man of the middle 20th century; there is no trace of his own fabulous life in his portrayal of Walter Lee, but there are no overtones in his performance, no intermediate shades — it’s all primary colors. It’s impossible not to notice that he works at a lower skill level than his costars, who support but also eclipse him. He seems merely petulant in a role that requires us to feel him half-mad and twisted up inside — “You’re damn right I’m bitter,” he says, “I’m a volcano, I’m a giant, a giant surrounded by ants” — and the weight of the play shifts to the women who put up with him, each of whom he resents for one thing or another — not supporting him sufficiently well or, in the case of his sister, who wants to be a doctor, getting the support he feels he deserves.