The Color Purple

What is it with white-boy directors and The Color Purple anyway? First Steven Spielberg found a career-changing success bringing the acclaimed 1983 Pulitzer-winning Alice Walker novel—about a slave girl's lifelong journey to self-fulfillment—to the big screen. Now, Gary Griffin, the Chicago-based critic's darling is set to make his Broadway debut at the reins of a multi-million dollar musical version.

"Most of what I've done hasn't been about white guys from the Midwest," laughs Griffin, who is a white boy from the Midwest not that there's anything wrong with that. "I'd probably have more trouble doing that than a show like this!" Even if they come from wildly different backgrounds, Griffin says he relates to Celie, the heroine of the story, who is first seen as a teen, pregnant by her own father. "I just love Celie so much," he says. "I'm inspired by her. I think all of us want to stay as true to our mission as Celie does."

For LaChanze, the Tony-nominated star of Once On This Island and the recent Dessa Rose off-Broadway, Celie offers a well-deserved plum leading role. "It's a timeless story," says the star, who also appeared in the show's Atlanta mounting last year. "It deals with the human spirit and triumphs and survival." Still, the mother of three and new wife to painter Derek Fordjour, admits the role is no walk in the park: "I'm completely drained when I finish. I need 20 minutes of downtime where I just sit in front of my mirror and stare. There's no phoning this one in! But it's worth it—it's a beautiful ride."

The Color Purple features a pop-gospel-blues-R&B score by a trio of musical theater neophytes with roots in the recording world—Stephen Bray, Brenda Russell and Allee Willis—and a book by Pulitzer-winning playwright Marsha Norman 'night, Mother, who insists Walker's tale always sang. "The minute you start to read the book, you hear the song of it," she says. "The music was always there."

THE COLOR PURPLE WHERE: Broadway Theatre, 1681 Broadway WHEN: Starts November 1, opens December 1