Corrections or additions?
This review by Simon Saltzman was prepared for the January 11, 2006
issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Broadway Review: `The Color Purple’
Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel made it to the big
screen in 1985 via director Stephen Spielberg. Notwithstanding the
film’s glossy veneer, the decade-spanning story of a poor, abused and
sexually conflicted black woman who discovers her true self and worth
during the first half of the 20th century in the Deep South was forged
in suffering and survival. Similar in this respect to the film, the
musical version casts a not entirely unwelcome shimmer on what is
basically a sad and sobering tale. Celie, the heartbreakingly real
central character, propels a poignant and trenchant narrative that
embraces many richly detailed emotionally resonating characters. The
film managed to keep the novel’s many turbulent and interlocking lives
in focus and earned new fans. Many have been moved to go on and read
the extraordinary epistolary novel.
Despite the need to reduce the sprawling saga to sound bites and
dramatic punctuations, the book that Marsha Norman has written for
this musical version courageously sustains the plot’s feminist agenda,
is admirably terse and far from frail. There are enough personal story
lines and events in “The Color Purple” to fill a dozen musicals. But
the production team makes certain that we never lose sight of the
circuitous path of a mistreated African-American woman who perseveres
and finds love and redemption in the face of a lifetime of sadness,
unfairness and prejudice. At the performance I attended, fans of the
film were legion and were undoubtedly pleased to hear a lot of
familiar dialogue to which they often responded with cheers and
applause.
We are hard pressed not be get thoroughly involved in the turbulent
life of the resilient Celie (LaChanze), as she is seen progressing
from a life of dependence into a woman of independence. An amazing
story needs an amazing score. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have one. The
best I can say for the music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee
Willis, and Stephen Bray is that it is loud, insistent, and passionate
without ever stirring our senses or capturing the vivid lyricism of
its source. Although the composing team is experienced, they are new
to musical theater. They have wisely not attempted to create a
sung-through pop-operetta. However, the songs seem more like
calculated impositions rather than flowing directly out of the
narrative.
While audiences will undoubtedly arrive with an image of the film’s
star Whoopi Goldberg in their head, LaChanze convincingly embraces the
role of Celie. She may be too obviously pretty for a role in which she
is self-described as ugly, but her performance is otherwise rooted in
truth and impassioned resourcefulness. In the course of two and one
half hours we see Celie as a 14-year-old, a victim of rape twice by
the man she presumes to be her father; as a young mother who has her
two infants taken away from her at birth; and as a piece of chattel
passed from one despicable man to another. When LaChanze finally has
her say with the attention-grabbing throat-choking aria “I’m Here”
near the end of the show, we see the kind of character-defining image
that has long been in the making.
Perhaps the most profound life-altering incident for Celie is being
separated from her dearly loved sister Nettie (Renee Elise
Goldsberry). Although limited to a few scenes, Goldsberry is touching
as Nettie, who finds her calling as a missionary working with children
in Africa.
To Norman’s credit, the musical isn’t afraid to give the supporting
yet essential characters plenty of room to charge the action with
their individuality. The women are particularly strong and
resourceful. Felicia P. Fields is a formidable presence as the tough
and independent Sofia, the role played by Oprah Winfrey, in the film.
Winfrey is now a major backer and promoter of the musical. Elisabeth
Wither-Mendes fills her role as the sensual honky tonk chanteuse Shug
Avery with plenty of verve. The scene with Shug, in which Celie
experiences romantic love for the first time, is beautifully and
sensitively dramatized.
The men, even if they are primed to arouse more apathy and sympathy
make lasting impressions. Kingsley Leggs is effective in doing a
complete turnaround from cruel to repentant, as Celie’s husband,
Mister. There are some nice opportunities for Brandon Victor Dixon, as
Celie’s ineffectual but warm-hearted stepson, Harpo, and Krisha
Marcano, as his spirited girlfriend, Squeek, to spark the action. A
trio of gossiping church ladies, who appear periodically to comment on
the goings-on, are a banal touch that merely splinters the show
whenever they appear.
There are a number of colorful, energetically performed dance numbers
choreographed by Donald Byrd that serve as diversions but seem also
oddly pressed into action when the going gets a little rough. As
directed with skill by Gary Griffin, “The Color Purple” is
conventionally episodic and reflective of old school musical. Yet the
lack of artistic conceit and self-importance also works in the
musical’s favor as the story is never compromised. Griffin, who is
making his directorial Broadway debut, is also the director of “A Moon
for the Misbegotten” at McCarter Theater, which goes into previews on
Tuesday, January 17, and opens Friday, January 20.
“The Color Purple” is visually stunning as seen from the artistic
perspective of designers John Lee Beatty (settings) Paul Tazewell
(costumes) and Brian MacDevitt (lighting), each of whom captures the
time, place, and atmosphere with plenty of evocative dazzle. Most
audiences know and expect the emotional ride that has been prescribed
and will happily stay the course to the show’s teary ending. When all
is said and sung, the result is having been through the ringer
musically and dramatically, but also of having been uplifted by the
sheer force and power of Walker’s message. HHH
– Simon Saltzman
“The Color Purple,” the Broadway Theater, 1681 Broadway. $26.25 to
$101.25. 212-239-6200.
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