Mendes leaves COLOR PURPLE Jan 31, returns for final shows...or not- Page 2

[adamgreer]

Posted: 2/2/08 at 12:43am

I was at Wednesday's matinee (chaperoning a school trip!!) and we were in the back of the mezzanine, which was full, because the seats were cheap and there were lots trips back there. However, the mid and front mezz was EMPTY. They had us all move down.

I enjoyed Love's Celie a great deal. She definitely has a strong voice. My only problem with her is that she does not age well. She doesn't look very convincing as the more mature Celie. I know she's actually older than Fantasia was, but I believed Fantasia as the older Celie a LOT more than Love. I also thought Bebe Wynans looked RIDICULOUS as Harpo. Waaaaaaaay too old. Because it was a matinee, and Miss Chaka Kahn is sleeping at 2 PM, we had Lakisha Jones as Sophia, who was "eh."

The stars of the show for me this time around were Elizabeth (she was ROBBED of a Tony that year!!) and Alton Fitzgerald White, who I've never ever seen give a bad performance. I love his "Celie's Curse."