The Color Purple
Alice Walker’s powerful, Pulitzer-winning novel The Color Purple translated beautifully to the screen for the Oscar-winning Steven Spielberg film; now, the story has been adapted for the stage as a musical that bursts with joy, pain, and triumph.
Now playing through June 28 at the Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre, the musical--a sensation on Broadway--features Oprah Winfrey among its producers. Winfrey has had a long-standing love of Walker’s novel, appearing in the 1985 film as the fearless Sophie in a role that garnered Winfrey an Oscar nomination; Whoopi Goldberg was also nominated for her turn as the main character, Celie.
In the musical, adapted by Marsha Norman (book) and Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray (music and lyrics), Celie is played by Kenita R. Miller. The musical doesn’t rub the story’s more distressing elements in the audience’s face, but neither does it gloss over Celie’s distress: as a young Black woman in the early 20th century, Celie is subjected to all manner of indignities. She’s raped by her father, who takes the resulting babies away from her; she’s then married off to an ill-tempered widower in an arrangement brokered by her father, who throws in a cow to sweeten the deal; and so abusive is Celie’s husband, whom she calls "Mister" (Rufus Bonds, Jr.) that he forbids her contact with her beloved sister, Nettie (LaToya London).
As a woman, Celie is essentially the property of the men in her life. This is made abundantly clear when Pa (David Aron Damane) declares Nettie, who protests Mister’s rough treatment of Celie, "She gon’ be his wife--he do what he want."
But the musical, like the book and film before it, is charged with a lively graciousness that includes hope, but transcends it, becoming an ode to faith: in God, yes, but more centrally in the enduring bonds of human connection.
Celie is denigrated by rough, callous men as being "ugly," but the metric used by the men is scant and shallow. It’s Celie, with her hard work and sunny demeanor, who makes Mister’s farm and family work. But Celie, who has little idea of her own worth, has a chance to reassess herself when Mister’s son Harpo (Brandon Victor Dixon) brings home Sofia Felicia P. Fields), a wife who won’t tolerate being pushed around. For the first time, the idea of a woman standing up for herself enters Celie’s consciousness, and in the most tuneful way imaginable: to the strains of the rollicking "Hell No!," a sizzler of a song that ranks with the classics of feminine empowerment.
The production is stuffed with powerhouse numbers that include soul, gospel, and even some pop; standouts include "Big Dog," "Brown Betty," "Push Da Button," "The Color Purple," and "I’m Here," and the songs propel the story and color in its emotional nuances.
With "Shug Avery Comin’ To Town" we are introduced to another strong-willed woman, the gorgeous (and man-eating) Shug (Angela Robinson), who is part of the reason for Mister’s permanent foul mood: she’s the only woman he ever loved, and he missed his chance to marry her.
That doesn’t stop Mister from taking Shug into his home when she turns up sick. But Celie, far from resenting the presence of the other woman, becomes Shug’s bosom companion; thankfully, the musical doesn’t gut the story by pretending that the love relationship between the women is not a fully rounded one, including an appreciation for feminine beauty and a spiritual closeness that suggests a lesbian relationship between the two.
It’s a revelation for them both, with Celie seeing herself as beautiful for the first time and Shug looking beyond the alluring power of the feminine physique to other qualities: tenderness, compassion, forbearance, all the attributes Celie possesses in quantity.
Decades roll by in the course of the play, and a secret hoard of letters from Nettie stacks up, confiscated and hidden away by Mister; eventually, Shug delivers those letters to Celie’s hands, and the musical makes full use of the stage to sweep Celie into the account the letters share of Nettie’s life as a missionary in Africa. The dance (by choreographer Donald Byrd) and music rocket into an entirely new level for a sequence of thrilling rhythm and choreography: it’s the play’s transformative moment, and Celie’s, too. Even as the century matures around her, Celie grows into herself and, with Shug’s help, embraces a life of dignity and self-respect.
The production makes use of costuming (by Paul Tazewell) and makeup (Angelina Avellone, whose work is matched by Charles G. LaPointe’s hair design) to reflect those changes. The characters visibly age as the play continues; fashions slowly change and then suddenly explode into a whole new look (but boy, do those 1910 outfits look good!)
Social attitudes change, as well... or don’t: this is humorously pointed up the presence of a trio of Church Ladies (Kimberly Ann Harris, Virginia Ann Woodruff, and Lynette DuPree) who act as a gossipy, scolding chorus, fluttering about scandal and propriety and getting overheated as they speculate on who’s getting it on with whom.
The set design by John Lee Beatty is as simple and elegant as the watercolor backdrop and as rustic and textured as the sketched-out rooms and detailed stoops that roll on and off the stage; there’s just enough set shown to evoke a complete mental picture of the setting, and that mental image stands up to the lavish costumes, aided by Brian MacDevitt’s lighting design. (MacDevitt adds one or two well placed notes to the story’s emotional punch: Celie’s first night with Mister is punctuated by a sudden spill of red light from Mister’s open doorway across Celile’s terrified face as she’s dragged, rather than carried, over the threshold.)
But the show’s heart and supreme highlight is the music. The vocal performances are uniformly excellent, but it’s the live orchestra that puts the show over the top; Sheilah Walker serves as music director, but an array of talent has brought the numbers to a high gloss that is literally note-perfect.
"The Color Purple" plays through June 28 at The Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre, located at 270 Tremont Street in Boston’s Theatre District.
Tickets cost $28-$100 and can be obtained online at www.citicenter.org or via phone at 866-348-9738. Group discounts available by calling 617-532-1116. Members of The Club at Citi Performing Arts Center can order tickets online at www.citicenter.org/club or by calling 877-232-8898.
Performance schedule: Tuesday-Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m. Sunday evenings at 7:00 p.m., Saturday matinees at 2:00 p.m., and Sunday matinees at 1:00 p.m. (Please note the Wednesday, June 17, performance will be at 7:00 p.m.)
More information about the production is available online at www.colorpurple.com
