A stunning The Color Purple at Goodman

[MidWestTheater]

Posted: 6/29/25 at 7:41pm

Last night I caught a preview performance of The Color Purple at the Goodman Theater directed by Lili-Ann Brown and it's a stunner. I was a little hesitant about seeing The Color Purple again. (The only time I had seen the show was in London in 2013 at the Menier Chocolate Factory with a then, unknown, Cynthia Erivo directed by John Doyle) It seems the Doyle production has become the stamp for so many productions since then. Yes, the set design is primarily wood planking and sparse props, but there is way more going on here then just chairs. (there's a very cool effect involving Shug getting out of the bathtub) Also, there's some very cool projection work involving the passage of time and locations. The use of Nettie's letters to build to the Act 1 closer is pretty thrilling.  

The cast is uniformly excellent, all Chicagoans which is amazing. Brittney Mack, of OBC of Six, is a heartbreaking Celie who's "I'm Here" still had me puddeling up. Evan-Tyrone Martin as Mister is still one of the greatest voices working on the Chicago Stage, although I'm still not a fan of Mister's songs. The MVP of this production is Nicole Michelle Haskins as Sophia, she burns the stage down when ever she's on, plus you really feel the chemistry with her and Harpo, Gilbert Domely. 

It's playing till mid-August so if you are coming to Chicago over the summer, please go check it out. Also, this has made me even more excited to see what Lilli-Ann Brown is going to do with "The Wild Party" at Encores next year.