The Color Purple
The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts – Kansas City, Missouri
January 16, 2018
Since it’s publication in 1983, Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” has won many awards. The Pulitzer. A couple of Tonys. Heck, if it wasn’t for some bizarre Steven Spielberg backlash the 1985 film version would have one a couple of Oscars.
The musical version of “The Color Purple” opened on Broadway in 2005, closing after running for over two years. In 2016 the show returned to Broadway, where it won the Tony award for Best Revival of a Musical. Now the show is on the road and it is definitely not one to miss.
The show begins in rural Georgia in 1909. We meet sisters Nettie (N’jameh Camara) and Celie (Adrianna Hicks). Nettie is smart and wants to be a teacher. Celie has always been mistreated and is about to give birth to her second child – by her stepfather. The baby is born and given away. We meet Mister (an amazing Gavin Gregory), a widower looking to marry Nettie. However, when told she is unavailable he settles for Celie, thinking of her not as a wife but as someone to raise his kids and clean his house. Not exactly a honeymoon.
Powerfully told, “The Color Purple” is fairly faithful to the book and film many people will be familiar with. Many of the familiar characters are here: Sofia (Carrie Compere), Harpo (J. Daughtry), Squeak (Erica Durham) and, of course, the amazing Shug Avery (Carla R. Stewart). The story is presented on a minimalistic stage, which consists mostly of a set of risers and a set of wooden chairs. But the show moves smoothly (though a little slow in the first act) and the cast is amazing. Both Ms. Hicks and Ms. Stewart have the power to bring down the house with their vocals. As Sofia, my favorite character in every incarnation of this story, Ms. Compere is both funny and heartbreaking. And I must make special mention of Mr. Gregory, who manages to make a character as dark and seemingly heartless as Mister sympathetic.
If you’re familiar with the story, you will genuinely enjoy this production. If you’re not, you need to take this opportunity to make it’s acquaintance.
The show is playing at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City through January 21st. For tickets and information on this show and future productions, click HERE