John Doyle’s stripped-down revival of “The Color Purple” is stunning, exposing a powerful story led by a powerful woman.
The Color Purple, a story about a woman of color who bravely and tirelessly fights for years before ultimately succeeding, is a transformative and empowering experience for the audience to witness and is the type of story that needs and deserves to be told on a Broadway stage. Broadway shows too often tell the stories of white men. Not to say they aren’t interesting, but repetition is boring. Only seeing one shade of the human experience limits perspective. John Doyle’s revival of The Color Purple is a beautifully crafted, simplistic production that gives voice to voices that are too frequently silenced and trusts the strength of protagonist Celie, and brilliant performance by actress Cynthia Erivo, to create, guide, and tell the story. The Color Purple showcases the necessity and incredible power of women persevering, enduring, loving and supporting each other.
The Color Purple takes place in rural Georgia in the 1930s and follows the story of Celie, a fourteen year old girl whose father beats and rapes her, resulting in the birth a son and a daughter. She finds love and solace in her younger sister Nettie (played beautifully and honestly by Joaquina Kalukango) until their father marries Celie off to the cruel and abusive Mister (played by the impressive Isaiah Johnson) who then forbids Nettie to visit Celie after she refuses his advances. Mister’s oldest son Harpo (played by the charming Kyle Scatliffe) brings home powerhouse Sophia (an incredibly funny and poignant performance by Danielle Brooks) who eventually leaves him after Harpo beats her at Celie’s suggestion. Mister’s on again off again lover Shug Avery (expertly and gorgeously played by Jennifer Hudson) comes to town to sing at Harpo’s juke joint and her blossoming friendship with Celie soon turns into love. Shug leaves shortly after Celie finds Nettie’s letters that Mister had hidden from her, and Sophia soon follows when she is released from jail for punching the mayor. Many years later, Shug and Sophia return for Easter and inspire Celie to leave Mister. She curses him for his treatment of her, sending Mister into a drunken spiral as he starts to feel the effects of her curse. While Celie is in Memphis with Shug, she discovers her talent for making pants, culminating in one of the best numbers of the show, “Miss Celie’s Pants,” and returns to her childhood home in Georgia after inheriting it when her father dies. When Shug tells Celie she wants to have one last fling with a nineteen-year-old boy, Celie sings the show-stopping number “I’m Here” as she finally learns to love herself. Meanwhile, Mister works with Harpo and Sophia to reunite Celie and Nettie, introducing Celie to her now adult children she gave birth to when she was fourteen.
Cutting back the script, score, and set allowed The Color Purple to breathe. Every song, scene, prop, movement in the production was essential to the telling of the story. Nothing was extraneous. The lighting was subtle and smooth and the set itself was bare, consisting of angled, massive walls made of splintered wood planks, decorated with individual wooden chairs hanging on pegs. Thus, Celie’s story was mostly told visually through strong yet simple stage pictures, often isolating Celie on the lowest, downstage center platform while the ensemble either encircled her on the upper platforms or sat in chairs taken off the set, looking on from the edges of the stage. These spacial relationships and use of repetition in the staging visually exposed Celie’s loneliness and highlighted the themes of violence, oppression, and gender.
The casting in this production was absolute perfection. The strong ensemble carried the show forward with their rich, magnificent voices. All three leading women, Cynthia Erivo, Jennifer Hudson, and Danielle Brooks, are outstanding in their Broadway debuts. Erivo is a tour-de-force. Her performance is deep and visceral, every note she sings send a shockwave down your spine. Her rendition of “I’m Here” was flawless and sung with such palpable passion and emotion that she received a standing ovation. In fact, after nearly all her lines the audience would erupt in laughter and applause. We couldn’t get enough of her. Jennifer Hudson brought a beautiful warmth and soul to Shug Avery. Her performance was incredibly nuanced and understated, but filled to the brim with life, energy, and vitality. It seemed truly effortless. When Danielle Brooks took the stage, she commanded attention. She was hilarious and heartbreaking and was delightful to watch. At its core, The Color Purple is an effortlessly powerful production that masterfully showcases the beauty and strength of women of color.
The Color Purple is playing on Broadway at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. More information can be found here.