“The Color Purple” opened at Madison’s Overture Center on Feb. 18, starting an eight performance run set to end on the 23rd. The show is a time-tested and breathtaking foray into the issues of abuse, redemption and love and this national tour cast stays true to those themes.
The incredible show is one of a few different adaptations stemming from Alice Walker’s original 1982 book. Steven Spielberg adapted it into a movie starring Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover and Oprah Winfrey in 1985, upon which the 2005 Broadway musical was based, garnering 11 Tony nominations. In 2015, it was announced that the London production would be staged on Broadway with Cynthia Erivo in the main role of Celie along with Jennifer Hudson and “Orange Is the New Black’s” Danielle Brooks. The Revival was nominated for four Tonys, winning two.
The show opens with the full cast standing on the bare, simplistic, four level stage, with two of the show’s main characters, Celie (played incredibly by Mariah Lyttle) and Nettie (Nashka Derosiers), singing a playful and optimistic song that is reminiscent of playground ditties, “Opening / Mysterious Ways.” The only set pieces used are a few straw baskets and a variety of simple wooden chairs that hang on the back wall between scenes. This visually simplistic design gives a similar tone to Walker’s book, which tells its heartbreaking story entirely by way of letters.
Other elements of the original book come through very clearly in the musical, especially considering the book is nearly 40 years old. The lyrics for the musical often echo Celie’s letters in the book by beginning a song with “Dear God,” but the portion of the book that is most mirrored in the musical comes in the show’s final number, “The Color Purple (Reprise).” The song begins with the same line that begins the final letter in the book, and ends with almost the exact same line as the book: “I don’t think us feel old at all. I think this is the youngest us ever felt. Amen.”
The story is a complicated narrative involving love and heartbreak as well as other topics that aren’t often addressed in mainstream media such as physical and sexual abuse. All of the actresses who have played Celie, from Goldberg in the film, LaChanze in the 2005 musical, Erivo in the 2016 revival, and now Lyttle in the national tour, have needed to portray an incredibly wide range of emotions. She suffers abuse from her husband, heartbreak from the woman she falls in love with, intense anger towards her husband for hiding letters from her sister and finally forgiveness for those that have wronged her. Lyttle beautifully represented all of these emotions. The one thing I felt diminished Lyttle’s performance was the sound levels on some of her show-stopping songs. You could see her passion on stage, but I felt the sound of her voice didn’t hit the audience as strongly as it could’ve.
Other actors also had incredibly passionate performances, most notably Chédra Arielle as Sofia and Sandie Lee as Shug Avery. What caught my ear the most was their spectacular ability to riff and make awe-inspiring vocal runs to embellish whatever note or line they were singing. Almost all of the characters did this to an extent, but I thought Arielle and Lee blew the house down in this department. Their talent gave the show a fresh feeling, allowing the audience to feel like this show was totally different from the last performance.
The music felt very convincing due to the obvious blues, jazz and gospel influences infused in its music, written by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray. Considering the setting of the show, the cultural struggles it represents and the themes it discusses, it makes perfect sense that the show would utilize specific musical traditions to evoke the feelings of despair from the blues, faith from gospel and hope from jazz.
Bluesy songs like “Big Dog” and “Push da Button” feel like they were pulled straight from the Mississippi Delta, and songs like “Hell No!” and “Brown Betty” sample gospel music with their repeated use of call and response. By using elements of different kinds of historically African-American music, the writers allow the audience to reside in a very believable musical landscape
One of the lighter and most entertaining elements of the show were the Church Ladies, played by Elizabeth Adabale, Parris Lewis and Shelby A. Sykes. In the first act, the three women would come on stage between every few scenes and sing a short, humorous song (“That Fine Mister,” “A Tree Named Sophia”) recapping a previous scene or previewing the next. Adabale, Lewis and Sykes were masterful with their rhythm locked tightly together, providing comic relief to the often dark and heavy show.
In a word, this show is phenomenal. In its explorations of the emotional topics embedded in the original book, the show takes the entire audience on a journey that is impossible to stop thinking about.
