Did the New Color Purple Musical Push Da Button of Broadway's Critics?
Here is a sampling of what they had to say:
Rob Kendt in his Broadway.com Review: “The new musical The Color Purple reminds us what Broadway's for, and all that Broadway can be: big-hearted, broad-stroked storytelling, with the epic emotional sweep only music can conjure… On its own terms, this deft, moving adaptation of Alice Walker's seminal feminist novel works like gangbusters… You'd have to have ice water in your veins not to be stirred by this unabashed paean to human resilience, and impressed by a production as masterfully executed as it is soulfully intended.”
Ben Brantley of The New York Times: “Watching this beat-the-clock production summons the frustrations of riding through a picturesque stretch of country in a supertrain like the TGV. The landscape looks seductively lush and varied; the local populace seems lively and inviting, like people you might want to know; you can even hear tantalizing snatches of folks singing in an intriguing idiom as they go about their work. But it all passes by in a watercolor blur. This show isn't stiff and anemic like its chief musical competition this season, The Woman in White another plot-crammed adaptation of a novel. But it never slows down long enough for you to embrace it.”
Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: “The show alternates uneasily between its painful subject matter and clichéd attempts at humor, all of which places a huge burden on the extraordinarily talented, hard-working cast. The enormously endearing LaChanze plays Celie, who overcomes the hardships of her early years to become a successful entrepreneur and bring peace to all the elements of her difficult, bumptious past. The material never really gives LaChanze a chance to take flight… Russell, Willis and Bray do not have the skill to find the music in Celie's pain.”
David Rooney of Variety: “While the show crudely reduces the sprawling feminist saga to cartoonish episodes, it can count on an audience willing to connect the dots… Dipping into both the book and Spielberg's film, writer Marsha Norman has shrewdly left chunks of movie dialogue almost intact… It's a testament to Walker's compassionate, truthful writing that moments… register as vigorously as they do, despite the creative team's unsophisticated storytelling and Gary Griffin's by-the-numbers direction. Like the sugar-coated movie, this shapeless stage version is far more satisfying than it deserves to be. A chief weakness is the failure to give Celie LaChanze decisive ownership of the story.”
Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: “Walker's heartfelt novel revels in its own idiosyncratic style, written as letters, many of them by its uneducated heroine, Celie. This stage version could use a little of the adventurousness of its literary predecessor. In many ways, The Color Purple is an old-fashioned musical. For example, there is an honest-to-goodness overture... And it has been lavishly produced… One problem for the show is that Celie is a difficult character to turn into a musical-theater icon. For much of the evening, she is stoic, even passive, not the kind of person who would naturally burst into song… Fans of Walker's novel most likely will not be disappointed in this reverent stage retelling and will embrace it heartily as a live souvenir of the original. Others may crave a little more theatrical excitement.”
Elysa Gardner of USA Today: “If your blood-sugar level is starting to creep up, be forewarned: Purple can be sappy stuff. But it's the kind of sap that seems to come from a pure heart instead of a cynical desire to exploit audiences' emotions with a lot of sentimental bells and whistles… It's often moving and well-served by a cast that ably sings soul, jazz, gospel and blues. LaChanze's Celie is a marvel, aging from an awkward 14 to 54 without letting us doubt a word or breath. Elisabeth Withers-Mendes and Felicia P. Fields also stand out as two sassy alpha females who befriend her, one becoming a sort of soul mate.”
Linda Winer of Newsday: “[The Color Purple] is a big, beautifully cast and produced, middle-of-the-road musical... It also is awfully nicey-nice for an epic about racism and black-on-black sexual abuse in Georgia in the first half of the 20th century. The show loses its way in the second act and, ultimately, leaves no cliche unturned. But this is not merely the first new old-fashioned American musical of the season. It may well be built to last… For all its familiar story and sensibility, this is surely the first mainstream musical to make a first-act curtain number from a lesbian kiss and love ballad… And for all the obvious expense of this handsome production, Gary Griffin's direction and Donald Byrd's exuberantly lyrical choreography seldom feel hard-sell… All the talent in the universe cannot make us see LaChanze as the girl everyone keeps calling ugly. But she is dynamite as Celie.”