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The Color Purple
(Color Purple Website)
Presented by
Oprah Winfrey
And
Scott Sanders, Roy Furman, Quincy Jones, Creative Battery
Anna Fantaci & Cheryl Lachowicz, Independent Presenters Network
David Lowy, Stephanie P. McClelland, Gary Winnick, Jan Kallish
Nederlander Presentations, Inc., Bob & Harvey Weinstein
Andrew Asnes & Adam Zotovich, Todd Johnson
at the
Broadway Theatre
A Shubert Organization
1681 Broadway at 53rd Street
212.239.6200
Based upon the novel written by Alice Walker
And the Warner Brothers/Amblin Entertainment Motion Picture
Starring:
LaChanze, Elisabeth Withers-Mendes, Felicia P. Fields,
Brandon Victor Dixon, Darlesia Clearcy, Krisha Marcano, Kinsley Leggs, and Cast
Directed by Gary Griffin
Music & Lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray
Choreographed by Donald Byrd
Book by Marsha Norman
Music Director: Linda Twine
Conductor: Linda Twine & Associate/Conductor: Joseph Joubert
Music Coordinator: Seymour Red Press
Production Managers: Arthur Siccardi & Patrick Sullivan
Production Stage Manager: Kristen Harris
Stage Manager: Glynn David Turner
General Management: Nina Lannan Associates/Amy Jacobs
Producer: Oprah Winfrey
Producers:
Scott Sanders, Roy Furman, Quincy Jones, Creative Battery
Anna Fantaci & Cheryl Lachowicz, Independent Presenters Network
David Lowy Stephanie P. McClelland, Gary Winnick Jan Kallish
Nederlander Presentations, Inc., Bob & Harvey Weinstein
Andrew Asnes & Adam Zotovich, Todd Johnson
Press: Carol Fineman/Barlow-Hartman
Marketing: TMG Marketing Group
Lighting Design: Brian MacDevitt
Sound Design: Jon Weston
Scenic Design: John Lee Beatty
Costume Design: Paul Tazewell
Casting: Bernard Telsey Casting
Josephine Reiter
May 30, 2006
The Color Purple at the Broadway Theater is a poignant, inspirational musical based on Alice Walker’s compelling Pulitzer Prize winning novel of 1982. The story’s film version came out a few years later in 1985 with a stellar cast under direction of Steven Spielberg. Now we have Director Gary Griffin’s musical version of the story as transformed by the creative team of Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray, who wrote the music and lyrics for the current production on Broadway. It’s a story of Celie, a young woman, growing up in rural Georgia between 1909 and 1949. There are always challenges when a powerful literary work is recreated in a different medium, i.e. a novel which becomes a play which then becomes an opera as in Verdi’s La Traviata or Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Knowing what to leave out becomes a big issue for those responsible for the words in a musical work, especially in covering a plot line of forty years in two hours. However, The Color Purple works, because the music and lyrics together express something that the written word alone (the novel) or the spoken words accompanied by a visual image (film)cannot.
What makes The Color Purple a good evening out is the strong cast especially in the leading roles: Celie (LaChanze whose singing and acting make you really feel for the heroine, Celie, who grows in faith and self-knowledge as bad things happen around her); her sister Nettie (Darlesia Clearcy who is on stage in Act I and then at the end as the reunion of the two sisters reaffirms the resilience of the human spirit); the bold but sympathetic Shug Avery (Elisabeth Withers-Mendes, a sexy lady who can sing and dance and move our hearts with her acting); the strong-willed Sophia (Felicia P. Fields, a great comic actress who can sing and dance with true style); the local farmer Mister (Kingsley Leggs whose acting & singing creates a nasty character who changes in Act II to become a believable remorseful man who actually moves toward redeeming himself) and his son Harpo (Brandon Victor Dixon whose acting, as well as his singing and dancing, create a very affable man that you wouldn’t mind getting to know). In addition, the ensemble is first-rate.
The Three Church Ladies (Kimberly Ann Harris, Virginia Ann Woodruff, and Maia Nkenge Wilson) are reminiscent of the 3 Ladies in Mozart’s Magic Flute or perhaps Wagner’s Rhinemaidens in The Ring Cycle. They comment on the action (That Fine Mister and A Tree Named Sophia in Act I); and frequently they begin a number that turns into an ensemble piece (Church Ladies’ Easter in Act II).
Highlights in the production include: Celia’s introspective, lyric ballads (Somebody Gonna Love You and I’m Here) in which LaChanze sings with such intensity and finesse to draw in the audience; Withers-Mendes’s contrasting styles in Shug’s brassy Push Da Button and her reflective Too Beautiful for Words; and the hilarious seduction between Harpo and Sophia as Dixon and Field’s “connect” in Act II. Sung first by Celie and Shug and then reprised at the end by Celie, Nettie (Darlesia Clearcy) and Company, the title song stays with you. The sets, costumes, and lighting are distinctive over-all as is the choreography.
Even if there are moments that test the imagination of the audience, e.g., the dream or fantasy Africa sequence that opens Act II, this musical is captivating in its energy juxtaposed with heart-felt moments. It is a tribute to the cast (LaChanze, Felicia P. Fields, Elisabeth Withers-Mendes, and Brandon Victor Dixon) and writers, as well as the production staff, that The Color Purple boasts eleven nominations for the 2006 Tony awards. This is a Broadway musical—both serious and entertaining--- sure to make you laugh and cry.
There is a CD of Highlights from The Color Purple featuring the original cast on Angel: 0946 - 3 - 42954 - 2 0.
Photo courtesy of Paul Kolnik
Photo courtesy of Paul Kolnik
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