The Color Purple: What the Musical Is Like, based on the film by Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg It was a foresight, a progress when in 1985 he decided to make his first “serious” film. Shark, Close encounters of the third kind AND Raiders of the Lost Ark It would be an adaptation of The color purplethe novel by Alice Walker which had won the Pulitzer two years earlier.

Visionary, the film had female and African-American protagonists, the theme was the overcoming of women in the face of slavery (the story begins in 1909) and machismo, with the role of patriarchy played by Albert, Danny Glover’s character.

It took a while, but the film was adapted as a musical on Broadway. Released in 2005, now director Blitz Bazagule (Black is kingthe Beyoncé film) cast Fantasia Barrino – who was in the original musical – as Celie, since Danielle Brooks -from the 2015 revival, including a Tony nomination- as Sofia.

The song is the same

And here the song remains the same. Even if it is a different film from Spielberg’s, and not only because it is a musical with almost 30 songs – even if many dramatic moments are neither sung nor danced – but because the adaptation of the opera staged on the big screen includes moments of fantasy, or dream of the protagonists.

The story, we were saying, is the same. Celie is 14 years old and has two children, both from her father, and she doesn’t know whether they live or not, or where they are. Once her mother died, her father not only abused her, but sold her to another African American (Mr. Colman Domingo of the ascendant) who made her his wife. And she will want to abuse Nettie, Celie’s sister (she plays her as a young girl Halle BaileyFrom The little Mermaid). Mr. kicks Nettie out of her house, so the sisters separate at an early age.

The color purple shows how two other women will influence the submissive Celie. I’m Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson), the rebellious daughter of the Georgia town reverend, a singer who “chose blues over religion” and is Mister’s lover.

The other strong female character is Sofia (Danielle Brooks), wife of one of Mister’s sons (Corey Hawkins, from 24: Legacy), a woman who is not afraid of anything, who goes with her head held high and if she has to pay the consequences, she will.

The color purple Spielberg’s film had 11 Oscar nominations, including film, direction, Whoopi Goldberg and even Oprah Winfrey (Sofia), in both of their debut films. He didn’t win any statuettes. It was the year in which Sydney Pollack, getting up to accept the award for Africa Mine, approached Steven Spielberg and shook his hand. The musical version, which has only one nomination (the supporting actress, Brooks, who is the best of the cast and richly deserves the award), will leave audiences in stitches and, yes, it will be missing Whoopi Goldberg—she has a cameo: she She’s the midwife.

“The Color Purple”

Drama/Musical United States, 2023. Original title: “The Color Purple”. 141′, SAM 13. From: Blitz Bazawule. With: Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Taraji P. Henson. Rooms: Cinépolis Recoleta and Pilar, Hoyts Abasto, Cinemark Palermo, Showcase Belgrano, Norcenter and Haedo.