The Color Purple
Alice Walker’s Pulitzer-Prize winning novel The Color Purple lends itself well to a stage musical in many respects. Characters like sexy, free-spirited Shug Avery and "Hell No!" Sofia seem made for the stage, as well as the story’s rousing, heartfelt themes. Though billed as the "The Musical About Love", the musical and the novel on which it’s based are just as much a story about self-discovery and faith. And "The Color Purple" does not chronicle doubt and a return to faith, but rather the discovery of a whole new form of faith.
Life starts out harshly for young Celie and her little sister, Nettie, African-American girls in rural Georgia of 1911. Their mother has died, and at fourteen, Celie is pregnant with her second child by her predatory stepfather. Brutally separated from her babies, and then forced to marry a local widower with his own wild brood of children, Celie has lost sight of God in her life. When her cruel husband prevents her from receiving Nettie’s letters, Celie comes believe that she alone in the world.
Meanwhile, Nettie has forged an unusual life: she joins a married African-American couple on a missionary trip to Africa. It happens that the girls’ stepfather sold Celie’s babies to the couple, who have raised the young boy and girl as their own. Nettie cares for them as they grow up in the village of a tribe called the Olinka, where Nettie battles the local prejudices against girls and women. Though Celie never receives them, Nettie never ceases to write letters home.
Celie becomes a member of an extraordinary community: her stubborn stepson, Harpo, his fearless and powerful wife, Sofia, and the love of her husband’s life: the sensual, glamorous singer Shug Avery, who comes to stay. Celie discovers her own love for Shug, and experiences a sexual, emotional and spiritual awakening with Shug’s companionship. Celie finds a new kind of faith: a journey from the religious into the spiritual. As a reunion with her beloved sister and long-lost children finally seems possible, Celie discovers that her God is waiting in myriad new ways beyond the traditional rendering of Jesus: in nature, in her community, and, most importantly, in her own self-realization.
Philadelphia’s Academy of Music hosts this production as part of its Cadillac Broadway Series. Running at the Academy of Music through July 13th, this Tony-winning, Grammy-nominated musical is on tour for the first time in North America.
Produced by Scott Sanders, Oprah Winfrey and the team of the original Broadway hit, Director Gary Griffin’s "The Color Purple" at the Academy of Music boasts some stellar performances, including Jeannette Bayardelle as Celie and Rufus Bonds, Jr as Mister, Celie’s abusive husband. In her early scenes with her ruthless stepfather and then her callous husband, Bayardelle in the role of Celie has the bedraggled aspect of a helpless rag doll. But as the story progresses, she crafts the most absorbing evolution, into a woman who will plant her feet in the ground and defy the cruelest confines of her past and her place in society. Her smile glints all the way to the balconies. Rufus Bonds Jr. (Mufasa of Julie Taymor’s "The Lion King" on Broadway) plays one of the story’s cruelest characters as a human being with potential for his own brand of discovery and redemption. Even in the midst of the worst malice, he can bring moments of a lucid velvet softness to his voice, coloring his songs with a deep vulnerability that speaks volumes.
Felicia Fields was Tony-nominated for the role of Sophia on Broadway, and continues in the role here. Her performance, though the play spans several years, seems less touched by the nuances of youth and age than the performances of Jeannette Bayardelle and Rufus Bonds. However, she brings a magnetic, powerhouse energy to the stage and, as an audience favorite, joins Bayardelle in embodying the show’s heart. Angela Robinson, also of the original Broadway cast, reprises the role of Shug Avery, and Stu James appears as Harpo.
Scenic Design by John Lee Beatty emphasizes Celie’s isolation, as the pieces of her world slide independently out and back across the stage (a dilapidated front porch, a bedroom, a jail cell), often leaving her agonizingly alone on an empty center stage. However, his "African" backdrop, while colorful and eye-catching, feels untrue to the African village setting, featuring what looks like a child’s drawing of sharply rectangular, triangle-roofed houses with square-paned windows. Costume Designer Paul Tazewell goes to town on some spectacular trousers for "Miss Celie’s Pants", and Lighting Designer Brian MacDevitt crafts a dappled, air-soft sky. Choreographer Donald Bryd, provided with the score’s irresistible blend of pop, gospel, jazz, swing, and the blues, underscores the ways that songs can become a kind of onstage lovemaking, and he fills ensemble numbers with an exuberant sensuality.
This tour of "The Color Purple", with its sensational cast, will satisfy the story’s legion of fans. "The Color Purple" runs through July 13th at the Academy of Music on the Avenue of the Arts. Visit the Kimmel’s website at www.kimmelcenter.org/broadway for schedule, ticket prices and more information.
The Color Purple
The Academy of Music
Avenue of the Arts
June 17th-July 13th
215-731-3333
www.kimmelcenter.org/broadway
