Friday, November 17, 2017
Stage review: 'The Color Purple' soars with message of hope and resilience
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “The Color Purple” might as well be ripped from the headlines of 2017, so prescient is the early 20th-century story of abuse and retribution, redemption and forgiveness. Brimming with potential pop hits for powerful female voices, the musical breaks the bonds of victimization with the declarative “Hell No” and shatters them with the anthemic “I’m Here.”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I remember seeing the last revival in New York about a year ago. Words cannot describe the feeling in the room when a person absolutely nails "I'm Here." I was lucky enough to see the show when Cynthia Erivo was playing Celie. Erivo held the room in the palm of her hand; her voice demanded to be heard and at the same time held the most tenderness I have ever heard in a voice. I remember seeing the most captivating moment of theatre I have ever taken part in in that performance: just after the finale of "I'm Here", in the split second between the last note and the applause, when the audience existed in silence and you could just barely hear the panting of the performer. That was probably the moment that sold me on wanting to go to Drama school. The music of The Color Purple is written such that every performance, done right, is nothing short of a masterpiece, and I'm glad the tour has achieved that status.
I just saw this production downtown last night and I knew pretty much nothing about the actual story before watching it. I was familiar with it since it went through the awards circuit with Cynthia Erivo and Jennifer Hudson a few years ago, but didn’t really know that much about the story or the music. One big takeaway from this article that I completely agree with is that the director stripped the show down to its bare bones and let the story and music shine. This decision was really successful and the design supported that. I never felt confused as to where I was or what was happening, even though it was the actors, a few chairs, and three levels. Another thing that I noticed that the article addressed is the passage of time. The musical spans what seems to be about 40 years, but there is no visual change on any of the cast other than the introduction of bright colors to the costumes. The bright colors make sense given the change in motivation, but like the reviewer states, it seems like they got younger.
Post a Comment