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The Power of Love is ‘The Color Purple’
By Pat Lindsey
The Color Purple may make you feel uncomfortable at first. It deals with topics that make us cringe. It makes us wonder how one young woman can endure physical and mental abuse every day of her life and still believe in God. It’s about the power of love and faith….and a happy ending.
Based on the musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel that is a series of letters to God, The Color Purple is Celie’s life story. Act I begins in 1911 in rural Georgia and 14-year-old Celie (Anastacia McCleskey) has just given birth to her second child. The father is Celie’s stepfather Pa (Duane Martin Foster), who immediately takes the baby away from her to put it where he put the last one.
The audience is already feeling uncomfortable with the thought of incest and possible murder. Then along comes Mister (Evan Tyrone Martin) looking for a new wife and Pa offers Celie to him. Mister, however, is interested in Nettie (Nasia Thomas), Celie’s sister, but Celie wants to protect her so that she can pursue her dreams of being a teacher. Mister thinks Celie is too ugly to marry, so Pa offers to throw in a cow to seal the deal.
Celie sacrifices herself to save Nettie, marries Mister, and becomes his personal slave. Her life is agony. Nettie has disappeared and Celie doesn’t know if she’s dead or alive. She has no friends until Mister’s son Harpo (Gilbert Domally) brings home a wife, Sofia (Nicole Michelle Haskins). Sofia is nothing like Celie. She refuses to take orders from a man or anyone else. Her trademark response is, “Hell no!”By the end of Act I, Shug Avery (Tracee Beazer) comes to town and Celie realizes a new kind of friendship and love with her. Shug is a singer/dancer and lover of men. Mister has carried a torch for her for years and resumes his affair whenever she’s in town. Shug has many relationships with men, but she forms a special bond with Celie that lasts for decades.
Act II is much more upbeat than the oppression of Act I. On Easter Sunday, Shug and her new husband rescue Celie from Mister’s servitude and take her to Memphis. But before she leaves, Celie places a hex on Mister that alters the course of his life. The dark, drab colors of the stage in Act I become vivid yellow, orange, blue, red, green when Celie makes her first pair of wide-leg pants for Shug and everyone else wants a pair. Celie and the Company burst into song and dance with “Miss Celie’s Pants” and the outcome of the story looks brighter. Celie becomes a successful businesswoman because everyone is wearing her pants.
Celie’s solo, “I’m Here,” puts the spotlight on her vocal range and meets with thunderous applause at the end. She is no longer ridiculed and abused. She admonishes God by saying, “If God listened to a poor colored woman, the world would be a better place.” And she gives us goosebumps and makes us want to leap for joy just thinking about the adversity she has overcome.
The Color Purple won the 2016 Tony Award for “Best Revival of a Musical.” The Grammy Award-winning score has something for everyone–gospel, jazz, ragtime and African blues. Kudos to the musicians who play it. The singers who perform this score are outstanding and could easily raise the roof, if The Muny had one.
The Color Purple is making its Muny debut now through Aug. 9 on The Muny stage. Tickets can be purchased online at muny.org or by calling 314-534-1111 or in person at The Muny’s box office 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. 7 days a week.
