A stellar production of 'Raisin in the Sun'

Sickness doesn't keep Audra McDonald down for long.

Slowed momentarily by a nagging cold, she has still managed to crisscross the country juggling interviews, an awards show and her daughter's birthday.

On this day, she's rushing to catch a flight from New York to Los Angeles while talking about "A Raisin in the Sun" (8 p.m. EST Monday, ABC).

She plays the put-upon Ruth Younger, the cornerstone of a middle-class Chicago family trying to get by in the 1950s. When McDonald last played the role, she won a Tony for it.

Staged originally almost 50 years ago, "Raisin" represents milestone American literature, focusing on a time building toward the civil-rights movement.

"The themes are universal," she says. "Everybody has a family. Everybody experiences joy, pain, desire, frustration, annoyance with them. Everybody has dreams. Anybody can identify with someone or something in this play."

ABC's "Raisin" contains much of the cast of the Broadway version, including Sean Combs and Phylicia Rashad.

In the story, Ruth's mother-in-law (Rashad) is waiting for a check from her late husband's estate to come through the mail. The $10,000 could change their lives.

Ruth's husband, Walt (Combs), has dreams of opening his own business. Walt's flighty sister wants to continue her education and have a career.

And Ruth? She wants to be practical at a time when practicality isn't understood by everyone around her.

"Even if all her work was officially done in the house, she'd still find something to do," says McDonald. "Ruth is never still. If she is still, it's because she has been knocked over emotionally."

Such a driven woman is certainly something McDonald can understand. During the recent writers' strike, McDonald didn't sit around waiting for "Private Practice," her series, to get back into production. She did a Broadway workshop and became more domestic with "lots of lunch-making and shopping and taking my daughter to school," she says.

"I've been working straight for the past three years. I really hadn't had a break ... So I really didn't mind having time off."

Other highlights for the week of Feb. 24 to March 1:

SUNDAY

-- "Academy Awards" (8 p.m., ABC). Only one choice for best picture: "No Country For Old Men," right?

MONDAY

-- "Top Gear" (8 p.m., BBC America). The racing series returns with guests like Simon Cowell, Jennifer Saunders and Helen Mirren.

TUESDAY

-- "Quarterlife" (10 p.m., NBC). Characters reaching the ripe old age of 25 put their lives in order.

SATURDAY

-- "Rescue Chef" (Noon, Food Network). A chef is on call to handle "personal culinary obstacles" -- and that sounds painful.

(Contact Terry Morrow of The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee at www.knoxnews.com.)