Chaka Khan in The Color Purple?
Chaka Khan in The Color Purple?
#1Chaka Khan in The Color Purple?
Posted: 2/9/13 at 9:11amI came across an old article about Chaka Khan, who would be joining the Broadway production of The Color Purple back in 2007. How did I never know this before today? Did anybody see her as Sofia?
Visceral_Fella
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/18/12
#2Chaka Khan in The Color Purple?
Posted: 2/9/13 at 5:14pm
I've always wanted to hear what she sounded like as Sofia. There's seemingly no evidence. 
showchoirguy
Broadway Star Joined: 7/14/10
#3Chaka Khan in The Color Purple?
Posted: 2/10/13 at 12:21pmI caught Khan as Sofia and she was quite good. Solid handle on the role, comfortable, and very funny. Her alternate, Lakisha Jones, however, was dreadful.
#4Chaka Khan in The Color Purple?
Posted: 2/10/13 at 1:48pmShe wasn't with the show for very long before it closed. At the time, a lot of people called her a diva for having an alternate, considering that Sofia isn't nearly as large a role as Celie. I saw her. She wasn't bad, but she wasn't Sofia. She was Chaka Khan. Luckily, most of the people who came to see her seemed to only care about seeing Chaka, not an actor playing a role.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#5Chaka Khan in The Color Purple?
Posted: 2/10/13 at 1:53pm
Khan went in as Sofia for only a week or two prior to the show closing, correct?
And Lakisha Jones was an American Idol contestant who usually played the Church Soloist when not covering for Sofia, I believe. I went on a Saturday matinee the last week (or possibly the week before) the show closed and I don't think I ended up seeing either.
#6Chaka Khan in The Color Purple?
Posted: 2/10/13 at 1:56pmI'm pretty sure Khan was with the show for about 6 weeks-two months before it closed. She didn't perform Wednesday or Saturday matinees at all during her run.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#7Chaka Khan in The Color Purple?
Posted: 2/11/13 at 1:47amGospel singer Bebe Winans was also in the show around the same time as Chaka. He was seriously miscast in the role of Harpo.
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