Illness curbs P Diddy
2004-06-14 08:02
New York - Hip-hop music impresario and Broadway performer Sean "P Diddy" Combs was forced to leave Saturday's matinee performance of A Raisin in the Sun because of a stomach ailment, a spokesperson for the production said.
Bob Fennell said Combs, 34, showed up for the performance at the Royale Theatre complaining he felt ill, but he insisted on going on with the show. In the play, Combs plays the main character, Walter Lee Younger, a frustrated limousine driver.
"By intermission he was feeling very, very sick so the stage manager instructed him to go home," Fennell said. The matinee and evening shows went on with an understudy.
The cause of the ailment was not immediately known. The understudy Billy Eugene Jones also stood in for Combs on Sunday.
The 15-week Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 play about a working-class Chicago family has been running since April 26. Although Combs received mixed reviews, initial ticket sales broke the Royale Theatre record.
The play also stars Sanaa Lathan, Audra McDonald and Phylicia Rashad. McDonald and Rashad recently won Tony awards for their performances.
On the net:
A Raisin in the Sun
- AP