Variety is Mixed-to-Positive:
"The raw folk-lyricism, epistolary structure and hard-edged conviction of "The Color Purple" make Alice Walker's Pulitzer-winning novel a challenging proposition for translation to a populist entertainment medium. Neither Steven Spielberg's prettified, Amblin-ized 1985 movie nor this big, messy patchwork of a musical entirely do justice to the story of poor black women from the Deep South in the first half of the 20th century. But in both cases, the book's vibrant characters and soaring emotional arc remain uncrushed. While the show crudely reduces the sprawling feminist saga to cartoonish episodes, it can count on an audience willing to connect the dots.
Walker created an indelible world as evocative and affecting in its depiction of sorrow and injustice as it is of joy, self-discovery and the redemptive power of love. Anyone familiar with the story brings a deep prior connection to these characters and their troubled lives. If the warmth surging from the audience on the show's first press night was any indication, it will be a Rialto fixture for some time; the mighty promotional muscle of presenting producer Oprah Winfrey certainly won't hurt that cause.
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In an honorable but ultimately laborious attempt to harness all of Walker's themes, Norman's book plods through the various chapters, shuffling far too many characters and refusing to make the kind of streamlining choices that could have given the overlong show clarity, nuance and immediacy.
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The show's design work generally is striking; while Brian MacDevitt's lighting takes its cue too eagerly from Spielberg with an excess of florid, rainbow-hued skyscapes, the stage pictures often are bold and impressive.
Written by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray, three experienced songsmiths new to musical theater, the score is an agreeable stew of gospel, R&B, blues, jazz and soulful pop that sounds like '80s-era Dionne Warwick. Like everything else in the show, the musical elements are a far-from-seamless mix, alternating flat stretches with stirring peaks, and too many songs feel incomplete.
But when the cast gathers onstage for the title number's uplifting final reprise, the mainstream auds to whom this show is pitched will go out on a feel-good high, elevated by Walker's affirmation of the resilience of the human spirit.
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117929016?categoryid=33&cs=1
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
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"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
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