THE COLOR PURPLE Movie Musical - News & Discussion Thread- Page 24

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 12/25/23 at 10:47pm

I saw it earlier today. I’ve never read the original novel, but I do have quite a bit of familiarity with this property. My first big introduction to the story was from having seen Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film adaptation when I was in high school, and absolutely adored it. I was lucky enough to have caught the most recent Broadway revival the Friday night before the 2016 Tony Awards. Cynthia Erivo’s performance as Celie was every bit as incredible as everyone said she was, and probably even more so. When she came to me at the stage door afterwards, I told her how much I loved her work. She not only thanked me, but she also mentioned that she noticed how I was really into the show in the audience (I sat pretty close to the stage). As for my thoughts on this new movie musical...

Under Blitz Bazawule’s direction, everything feels so musically inclined. About 13 songs from the stage version weren’t included here. Yet they never felt missing at all. The songs that were kept, Blitz does some imaginative things with them. They’re not only shot very well (partially thanks to Dan Laustsen’s vibrant cinematography), but also staged very well. Some of them are also brought to exuberant life by Fatima Robinson’s killer choreography. In fact, I think this might just have some of the very best dancing I’ve seen in a movie musical in years.

Although something else Blitz also nails in his direction is all the dramatic scenes. Everything feels so emotionally effective with some nice touches of comic relief. A lot of the performances are incredible. Celie in my opinion has one of the best character arcs ever written for any story. Fantasia Barrino perfectly portrays her as a reserved woman in the beginning to eventually finding her strength in the end. I must say that her rendition of ‘I’m Here’ (recorded live on set) might just be the best staged and performed dramatic number in a movie musical since Anne Hathaway’s rendition of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ in Les Misérables.

Other members of the cast definitely deserve shoutouts here. Taraji P. Henson is perfectly glamorous as jazz singer Shug Avery. She even shares some lively chemistry with Fantasia. Colman Domingo is perfectly abusive as Celie's husband, Mister. Without giving too much away, you end up sympathizing with him later on. Phylicia Pearl Mpasi and Halle Bailey are both so adorable as the younger versions of Celie and her sister, Nettie, respectively. The two of them also share a fun song early on titled ‘Keep It Movin’,’ which is one of the new tunes written just for this film. Although Danielle Brooks hands down steals the show as Sofia, a fiercely independent woman who refuses to submit to anyone who tries to dominate her.

For months, this has been billed as a “bold new take on The Color Purple.” Now that I’ve seen it, the marketing department certainly wasn’t kidding. Blitz’s vision for some of the songs taking place in Celie’s imagination feels reminiscent of Rob Marshall’s approach to the musical numbers in Chicago. Although a couple of them here are cleverly reimagined to be performed in a diegetic way. The original underscore by Kris Bowers fits in nicely. Not to mention that the filmmakers found a smart way of incorporating 'Miss Celie's Blues' from Spielberg's movie into this one. Yet overall, the heart and soul of Alice Walker’s story feels so alive in this iteration.

Click Here for My Full Review

[inception]

Posted: 12/25/23 at 11:35pm

Maybe their focus right now isn't on Australia if it doesn't open there until the end of next month.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 12/26/23 at 3:34am

I'm going tomorrow (weds) and when I bought our Tix online on Christmas night, the theater was literally empty.

 

I'M excited to hear so many positives from folks here! 

 

Big fan of the musical, and, frankly, all forms of The Color Purple.  Hope I joy the fanclub 

[phantom8019]

Posted: 12/26/23 at 10:41am

Per Deadline:

"Speaking of The Color Purple, it came up big — much bigger than expected on its first day with an estimated $18.1M, A CinemaScore, 5 stars and 92% positive. That haul was enough for Color Purple to win Christmas Day ahead of Aquaman 2 ($10.6M) and Wonka ($10.4M). As of right now that ties with the first Christmas day of Universal’s feature take on West End/Broadway musical Les Miserables which went on to ultimately make $148.8M. Are musicals dead on the big screen? Absolutely not, they just need to be excellent."

https://deadline.com/2023/12/box-office-aquaman-and-the-lost-kingdom-migration-color-purple-1235680766/

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 12/26/23 at 10:49am

rosscoe(au) said: "For a big year end movie, this seems to be dead on arrival. While it doesn’t open in Australia till January 26th ( same as the UK ) the buzz on this is zero. Apart from a couple of trailers it’s like the studio has just given up."

Clearly, the only thing dead on arrival was this post.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 12/26/23 at 12:14pm

Was this in select theaters a week early? Saw some social media posts over the weekend of people that saw it.

[Alexander Lamar]

Posted: 12/26/23 at 12:24pm

ACL2006 said: "Was this in select theaters a week early? Saw some social media posts over the weekend of people that saw it."

WB/Oprah sponsored TONS of advance screenings over the past two weeks. Even my Nana’s senior center somehow had a private early screening. 

[uncageg]

Posted: 12/26/23 at 2:41pm

Alexander Lamar said: "ACL2006 said: "Was this in select theaters a week early? Saw some social media posts over the weekend of people that saw it."

WB/Oprah sponsored TONS of advance screenings over the past two weeks. Even my Nana’s senior center somehow had a private early screening."

A private screening code was evidently sent out before yesterday as my friend got one to watch it at home.

I went with a good friend to see it. After we left he gave me the Purple Rising - 40 Years of The Color Purple table book for Christmas.  Had no clue it existed. Covers TCP from the book right through the movie musical.

 

Updated On: 12/26/23 at 02:41 PM

[joevitus]

Posted: 12/26/23 at 5:35pm

phantom8019 said: "Per Deadline:

"Speaking ofThe Color Purple,it came up big — much bigger than expected on its first day with an estimated$18.1M, A CinemaScore, 5 stars and 92% positive. That haul was enough forColor Purpleto win Christmas Day ahead ofAquaman 2($10.6M) andWonka($10.4M). As of right now that ties with the first Christmas day of Universal’s feature take on West End/Broadway musicalLes Miserableswhich went on to ultimately make $148.8M. Are musicals dead on the big screen? Absolutely not, they just need to be excellent."

https://deadline.com/2023/12/box-office-aquaman-and-the-lost-kingdom-migration-color-purple-1235680766/"

The film version of Le Mis was excellent? 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/26/23 at 5:41pm

This tweet from LaChanze is interesting
 

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 12/26/23 at 7:11pm

And more in response to a post by Amber Iman:

https://twitter.com/laChanze/status/1739747653632544927

[uncageg]

Posted: 12/26/23 at 7:22pm

So in this interview LaChanze says "She'd like to think she helped write the song". 

 

https://time.com/6549196/the-color-purple-im-here-celie-fantasia/

[JSquared2]

Posted: 12/26/23 at 10:18pm

Kind of surprised at LaChanze. Those were pretty classless tweets. 

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 12/26/23 at 10:21pm

joevitus said: "phantom8019 said: "Per Deadline:

"Speaking of The Color Purple, it came up big — much bigger than expected on its first day with an estimated $18.1M, A CinemaScore, 5 stars and 92% positive. That haul was enough for Color Purple to win Christmas Day ahead of Aquaman 2($10.6M) and Wonka($10.4M). As of right now that ties with the first Christmas day of Universal’s feature take on West End/Broadway musical Les Misérables which went on to ultimately make $148.8M. Are musicals dead on the big screen? Absolutely not, they just need to be excellent."

https://deadline.com/2023/12/box-office-aquaman-and-the-lost-kingdom-migration-color-purple-1235680766/"

The film version of Les Mis was excellent?"

That depends on who you ask. There's people out there who think so. There's other people out there who don't think so. Although something I've learned from all the time I've spent on the internet is that when it comes to divisive movies, those who dislike them tend to be more vocal about their thoughts than those with opposite opinions.

[uncageg]

Posted: 12/26/23 at 11:08pm

JSquared2 said: "Kind of surprised at LaChanze. Those were pretty classless tweets."

I only saw what was posted here. I am not on Twitter. I am just not impressed with her saying what she said in the interview and then posts that comment right when the movie comes out. I tried to go back and look at it again for the date. It wouldn't open but her thank you to Amber did. What did Amber say?

 

[DaveyG]

Posted: 12/27/23 at 8:48am

uncageg said: "So in this interview LaChanze says "She'd like to think she helped write the song".

I’m beyond frustrated for the songwriting team -  Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray - who actually wrote the Broadway show. They are barely mentioned in all of this. LaChanze is a mega talent, but her claiming to be owed royalties as a writer is absurd.

The creative process is messy. LaChanze said she expressed her feelings and emotions to the writers, who then interpreted them and did the work of creating the song. If actors are going to start demanding payment for these conversations, we’re headed towards chaos. 
 

[ucjrdude902]

Posted: 12/27/23 at 10:22am

This comes across bitter and desperate in my opinion. 

[musicalfandukie]

Posted: 12/27/23 at 10:27am

I almost wonder if she is upset that she was not asked to have any involvement with the movie. No cameo or anything so she is directing her bitterness towards the writers.

Updated On: 12/27/23 at 10:27 AM

[ColdClimateDude]

Posted: 12/27/23 at 10:28am

I'm just shocked La Chanze and Amber Iman are still on X(fka Twitter)

[OneoftheSquad]

Posted: 12/27/23 at 10:51am

Danielle (Sofia) and Colman (Mister) were the standouts for me. I feel like Danielle will receive a lot of praises this award season.

Overall, I loved it but I was very confused about the things they changed/cut, especially with this being an adaptation of the stage production. On stage "Squeak's" name actually made sense bc they have the actress in the role singing in a nasally and squeaky voice...Why remove that portion?

Also, the three church ladies were the narrators/gossip queens/comedic relief in both of the stage productions and they were completely cut. Those harmonies would have been epic on screen.

[TheQuibbler]

Posted: 12/27/23 at 11:17am

DaveyG said: "The creative process is messy. LaChanze said she expressed her feelings and emotions to the writers, who then interpreted them and did the work of creating the song. If actors are going to start demanding payment for these conversations, we’re headed towards chaos."

But isn't this exactly what the original cast of Hamilton did? It's not unprecedented; they now receive royalties. 

[Ke3]

Posted: 12/27/23 at 11:28am

TheQuibbler said: "DaveyG said: "The creative process is messy. LaChanze said she expressed her feelings and emotions to the writers, who then interpreted them and did the work of creating the song. If actors are going to start demanding payment for these conversations, we’re headed towards chaos."

But isn't this exactly what the original cast ofHamiltondid? It's not unprecedented; they now receive royalties."

And frankly, more casts should be fighting for it. Yeah the process of creating a Broadway show is "messy" but it's also not that hard to keep track of where ideas come from and who presents them. I suspect there are many actors out there who had more then a small hand in shaping what a show became. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 12/27/23 at 12:14pm

The HAMILTON cast does not get author royalties. They got a pro-rated percent-of-a-percent of net profits from the New York and touring stage production.

What LaChanze is describing in the TIME article is not authorship (ideas come from everywhere), but then in her Tweet she implies actual authorship. Had she contributed specific lyrics to the song during the 2003 workshop, her agent and legal team would have negotiated that in good faith ahead of her contract being signed for the 2004 Atlanta production or the 2005 Broadway production. If there was any proof of authorship, her team could have involved the Dramatist's Guild and/or taken it to court 20 years ago. If she had legitimate concerns over her contributions to the writing of the show, it would be odd to stay with the show for more than a year on Broadway.

But we can't take the tweet seriously if she is complaining (on 12/26) that she is being left out of press, when she willingly participated in press for the film that ran on 12/25 (the TIME article). All this just sounds like LaChanze being LaChanze.


(Side note: The most egregious lack-of-credit situation occurred on the FENCES film, when Kenny Leon didn't get so much as a "special thanks" for directing the revival on Broadway and assembling much of the principal cast which went on to do the film)

Updated On: 12/27/23 at 12:14 PM

[DaveyG]

Posted: 12/27/23 at 12:38pm

Ke3 said: "TheQuibbler said: "DaveyG said: "The creative process is messy. LaChanze said she expressed her feelings and emotions to the writers, who then interpreted them and did the work of creating the song. If actors are going to start demanding payment for these conversations, we’re headed towards chaos."

But isn't this exactly what the original cast ofHamiltondid? It's not unprecedented; they now receive royalties."

And frankly, more casts should be fighting for it. Yeah the process of creating a Broadway show is "messy" but it's also not that hard to keep track of where ideas come from and who presents them. I suspect there are many actors out there who had more then a small hand in shaping what a show became."

Horrible precedent. Do you suggest transcripts be made of rehearsals with all conversations between authors, directors and actors? Will authors now need to stop speaking with actors out of fear they're going to get accused of "stealing" an idea? 

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 12/27/23 at 12:41pm

I have no idea what's true, but it did always really strike me how much conspicuously better that song is than anything else in the score. Not just like "This is a big powerful 11 o'clock number" but like "Most of this score sounds like it was created by an algorithm but this song feels specific and creatively competent."