The Color Purple the musical - Review

***** SPOILER ALERT *****

I finally saw The Color Purple the musical and want to share my thoughts on it. If you have not yet seen it and don't want to know details, I suggest clicking on to some other page. Earlier in the day, I had read a review that gave some helpful information but I wish I had waited until after I saw the show to read it.

The musical was very good! I had not read the book (one is on it's way from Amazon right now, though!) but I am very familiar with the movie version of the story. So this is where I base my opinions. After I read the book, I will come back and have something else to share, I'm sure.

I must admit, I was very much looking forward to the music, I've always been a fan of Shug's song to Celie in the jukejoint and one of my faves is 'God is trying to tell you something' in one of the church scenes. The musical, however, had it's own music and songs and there was not so much as even the hint of the music from the movie. The musical offered up some new and interesting songs which were catchy and performed extremely well!

The cast was great, especially Jeannette Bayardelle who played Celie. Her voice was spot on for reaching those notes. I must say though, the musical was not quite the same story as the movie, I suppose it was geared more like the book. It's just that you are left with only a slight feeling of poor Celie. Whereas in the movie, your heart just broke for her over and over again. You were so vested in her character and all that happens to her. The musical fell a little flat in this sense, to me. I also could have lived without the further exploration of the homosexual relationship between Celie and Shug. The musical also showed that Squeak left with Celie, Shug and Grady, but in the movie, she only said she wanted to. As the yellow car pulled away from the house, only Grady, Shug and Celie were in it.

They music and singing and dancing in this musical were all very good, top notch! The acting between Harpo and Sophia was soooo entertaining, that woman can SANG!!!

All in all, it was a very entertaining show. I'm glad I saw it. My mom and I laughed out loud several times. As I said before, we purchased the book by Alice Walker the next day so we can read it together to get the intended story from the writer who created Celie, once and for all. I'll keep you posted on the outcome of that!