Theater News

Purple People

Broadway veterans and newcomers collaborate in bringing to life a musical based on Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple.

Renée Elise Goldsberry and LaChanzeat a press preview of The Color Purple(Photo © Joseph Marzullo)
Renée Elise Goldsberry and LaChanze
at a press preview of The Color Purple
(Photo © Joseph Marzullo)

Adapting a beloved novel such as Alice Walker’s The Color Purple to the Broadway musical stage is a mammoth, risky undertaking. What’s remarkable about The Color Purple, which starts performances at the Broadway Theater on November 1, is the unusual mix of Broadway veterans and newcomers who are working together on the project.

Among those bringing their considerable Great White Way experience to the table are producer Scott Sanders; Pulitzer Prize-winner Marsha Norman, who has written the show’s book; stars LaChanze (Celie), who originated the role in Atlanta last fall, and Renée Elise Goldsberry (Nettie); and such talented designers as John Lee Beatty (sets), Paul Tazewell (costumes), and Brian MacDevitt (lighting).

Goldsberry was actually the last person cast in the show; she got the part in September, just as she was finishing the run of the Shakespeare in the Park production of Two Gentleman of Verona, for which she received rave reviews as Silvia. “I actually didn’t read the reviews, except for Ben Brantley’s, because I had to see if it was as good as everyone told me,” she says. Now it’s back to the world of 18-hour working days, since she is continuing to film her role as Evangeline Williamson on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live while rehearsing The Color Purple. “It’s a dream come true to get this part and to be with these people, especially LaChanze,” Goldsberry enthuses. “Of course, I told my husband that I may not be seeing him for a while.”

Arguably, the show’s most gargantuan task belongs to costume designer Paul Tazewell, who has created nearly 250 outfits for the cast. “There is such great joy in doing a piece like this, where there is such variety in body types and so many different time periods,” he says. “The show covers 1909-1945. And because of how the production is designed, the costumes have to give some of the information that supertitles might in a film, like when the day changes or when we’re in a new time period.”

Brandon Victor Dixon and Felicia P. Fields(Photo © Joseph Marzullo)
Brandon Victor Dixon and Felicia P. Fields
(Photo © Joseph Marzullo)

It’s hard for Tazewell to pick a favorite character in the show but, when pressed, he points to the group of ladies known as “the gossips,” saying: “They’re great fun. I was able to draw on people I knew in my family; I heard my grandmother and my aunts and people in church talk like these women. And because they’re the leading ladies of the community, they could be a little more eccentric in their dress. Wait until you see their hats!”

Equally impressive as the veterans working on the show is the Broadway neophyte contingent: producers Oprah Winfrey and Quincy Jones, director Gary Griffin, choreographer Donald Byrd, composer/lyricists Brenda Russell and Allee Willis, and co-stars Felicia P. Fields (Sofia), Brandon Victor Dixon (Harpo), and Elisabeth Withers (Shug) are all making their Broadway bows with The Color Purple. Griffin, whose credits include the City Center Encores! production of The New Moon, has been with the show since workshops began over two years ago, and he directed the previous mounting in Atlanta in the fall of 2004.

The director is grateful that the show has had such a long gestation period. “It was wonderful not to have the pressure to get into a Broadway house,” he says. “As for the script, it’s been more about refining and shaping the story. And we spent a lot of that time casting the show; as it evolved, the demands of casting became clearer, especially as the roles became more defined vocally. We also needed to hire very special dancers, since Donald’s choreography has more of a ballet feel yet still has its own Color Purple vocabulary.”

Indeed, if there has been a major change between the Broadway and Atlanta productions, it is the presence of so much choreography. “I think Gary and the producers did not originally see this as a show that had a lot of dancing,” says Byrd — one of the country’s pre-eminent modern dance choreographers — who joined the team after the end of the Atlanta run. “Fortunately, Marsha loves dance. Of course, the question was how dance could be used to help tell the story, and that fits with my sensibility as a choreographer. The book was one I always admired because there is a lot of joy and humor in it but also some darkness.”

Elisabeth Withers and company(Photo © Joseph Marzullo)
Elisabeth Withers and company
(Photo © Joseph Marzullo)

Casting this incredible troupe of dancers proved to be somewhat less challenging than Byrd imagined. “I was surprised by how many talented people are out there,” he remarks. “Everyone I chose had done Broadway, although many had also done modern dance and a couple had even danced with my troupe, Spectrum. The big issue was finding people who could do this eight times a week — some of them in high heels!”

The show is a dream come true for Withers, a well-known recording artist who is thrilled to be in such esteemed company for her Broadway debut. She was recommended for the role by her friend, producer Quincy Jones. “This is an incredibly journey,” she says. “The world of theater isn’t so different; it’s all about performing, working out your muscles.”

In addition to having read the book and having seen the Steven Spielberg film version of The Color Purple numerous times, Withers recently got to spend some time with actress Margaret Avery, who played Shug in the movie. But she says her characterization will be very different from that of her predecessor, if not so different from her own persona. “I think Shug and I are a lot alike,” she comments. “We both like to shock people.”