The Color Purple
Book by Marsha Norman
Music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis,
Stephen Bray
Directed by Gary Griffin
Starring LaChanze,
Elisabeth Withers-Mendes
At the Broadway Theatre
in New York
Rating: **
Halfway through its long, first act, just as The Color Purple: A New Musical looked set to reach new heights of empowerment hubris and greeting-card copy, something peculiar happened. Along came a song that in name, spirit and performance did what the rest of this three-hour musical epic frustratingly failed to deliver: Push Da Button.
As a paean to adventurism, hedonism and self-pleasure, the song stands out in stark contrast to a cautious production that wears its socially conscious message with the same pride its opening-night audience, on Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, wore their red ribbons.
Admirable, of course, but it's hard to tell if the creative team behind The Color Purple -- including its above-the-title producer, Oprah Winfrey -- knew where the button is, let alone how hard to push it.
On reflection, there's no evidence onstage that they ever planned to push anybody's buttons. All involved probably just wanted a pleasant little inspirational musical about incest, rape, lesbianism, slavery and racism, and, by golly, they've done it. If you must sing and dance your way around a troubled past, this is a box-office-guaranteed, show-stopping, toe-tapping, how-to example. Here's one lesson from The Color Purple school of nullifying history: Put all the darkness and tragedy in the first act and switch gears, hastily and improbably, in the second to light and recovery. It's what you leave them with that counts.
For those not familiar with the original 1982 Alice Walker novel, or the Steven Spielberg film adaptation three short years later, The Color Purple is the story of Celie (LaChanze), told over a number of deeply felt but simply written letters to "dear God."
Celie's life in early-20th-century Georgia is defined by the cruelty of men and the grace of women.
Sold by her father to the beastly Mister (Kingsley Leggs), she suffers another blow when her beloved sister Nettie (Renée Elise Goldsberry) is banished from her life.
Hope, salvation and sexual awakening come from the large-and-in-charge Sofia (Krisha Marcano, in a role originated by Winfrey on screen) and petite saloon singer Shug Avery (Elisabeth Withers-Mendes).
The emotional arc of the story is Celia's anguish over her lost sister.
But this is an impossible task to translate to the stage since Marsha Norman's book for the musical barely establishes the relationship between the two women. Celia's longing operates in an emotional and thematic vacuum.
Norman's book in general -- the kind where a decade passes in minutes and minutes can feel like a decade -- works best as a basic wash line on which to hang the musical laundry of Brenda Russell, Alee Willis and Stephen Bray, the consulting team given the lyrics and music duties. From the very first note in the overture to the rousing finale, the name of the game is eclecticism.
The score is gospel, tribal, jazzy, bluesy, funky, American Idol-ready with some swanky songs sounding suspiciously like Luther Vandross brought to life. There's good work here but the creative trouble is that most of the songs and lyrics are generic to the extreme. The act-one closer is a duet between Celie and Shug called What About Love? that, sans its lesbian connotations, could be dropped in on the score of Wicked without a note of incongruity.
Similarly, the performances elicited by Gary Griffin's efficient direction are, if not by numbers, then at least by the book -- not the Walker one, but that well-thumped classic about saving shows through resilient performances. Everybody works hard, singing their hearts out and lending credibility to uninspiring inspirational material.
Yet there's no disguising the simple fact that a sweet but miscast LaChanze is easily upstaged by Marcano and Withers-Mendes, or that what The Color Purple really needs to elevate it into something more than good intentions is some star power in its casting and not in its finances or buzz. Gazing at the opening-night crowd -- Donald Trump, Jamie Foxx, David Bowie, Star Jones, Gloria Steinem, Spike Lee and Lady O herself in a stunning purple gown, among others -- you could be forgiven for concluding that star light in the aisles shone brighter than its on-stage variation. Oh dear God, indeed.
The Color Purple runs at the Broadway Theatre in New York for an indefinite run (212-239-6200).