The Color Purple is official!- Page 2

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/6/05 at 6:58pm

The book consists of a young semi-literate girl's letters to God in which she describes her life and what happened to her over the course of many years -- some of it painful, some of it life-affirming and revelatory. There are many different ways the novel could have been adapted -- the screenwriter took a very literal, didactic approach, stripping the story of its poignance and poetry, turning the black men into either boogie men or clowns without any nuance or depth.

I also take issue with Spielberg's direction which borders on the cartoonish (more than once, Whoopi Goldberg looked like E.T. to me) with doses of slapstick and minstrelry along the way. This is on the page a very serious, powerful story, but in his hands it too often plays like a melodramatic soap opera laden with over-the-top comic relief and lots of stereotypes. Is there a reason that Rae Dawn Chong is doing a Butterfly McQueen impression throughout? Then again, I guess it matches Oprah's rendition of Hattie McDaniel.

Spielberg didn't do his homework on this film -- one would think that the man had never met any black people and that he had gotten his impressions of how to depict them in the film from watching Gone With the Wind and old Amos and Andy re-runs -- and as a result the final product is a shadow of the source material, lacking the sort of care and truth and sensitivity which he was able to bring other projects of his (notably Schindler's List, which obviously had greater resonance with him than did Celie's story here).

Updated On: 7/6/05 at 06:58 PM

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 7/6/05 at 7:10pm

Is the musical going to be based more on the book or film? Did the film change anything bout the novel? Is the novel a "quick" read or is it very indepth, like East of Eden? Just wondering. Thanks.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/6/05 at 7:17pm

I imagine they're going back to the original novel for the book of the musical.

The book is about 300 pages. I remember it being a rather quick read -- maybe a day or two. You have to get used to young Celie's grammar at the beginning, which might slow you down a little (it's sort of like reading Liam), but it's a terrific piece of writing (Alice Walker won the Pulitzer for it).

[magruder]

Posted: 7/6/05 at 8:12pm

I was traveling home, so I missed the follow-up questions, but Margo hit the nail on the head, per usual. The film reduces the book to a cartoon, and the depiction of black men as monsters or idiots in the film is absolutely unforgivable.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 7/6/05 at 9:36pm

Yeah, I haven't seen The Color Purple, but I can imagine Speilberg over doing it, as he usually does with his movies.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 7/6/05 at 9:45pm

I recommend the film simply for the brilliant performances of the cast, most note-worthy being Whoopie Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey.

[Princeton78]

Posted: 7/6/05 at 9:58pm

Is the musical really big enough for the cavernous Broadway Theatre?

[apdarcey]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 12:03am

i hope that this turns out to be breath-taking. the material sure has that potential...

does anyone else see chuck cooper as the main guy? i forget the name... i think danny glover played him in the movie.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 12:03am

Mister!

[apdarcey]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 12:08am

is that the character's name or am i missing something... (i haven't read it or seen the movie in a long time.)

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 12:35am

Celie calls him Mister.
Shug calls him Albert.

[apdarcey]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 12:37am

ah yes... now i remember. what are thoughts on who could play shug?

[EvelynNesbit1906]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 12:50am

I won't lie... I found the movie compelling. But I haven't seen it in years. If I watch it again tomorrow, I might find the stereotypes particularly offensive -- especially as a black man who knows that mediated images of black masculinity are often accepted as true.
Updated On: 7/7/05 at 12:50 AM

[apdarcey]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 1:06am

i found us all a 6 minute piece on npr.. it has interestingly honest interviews with alice walker, marsha norman and gary griffin (the director) about the material and the production... also there are some sounds from the show in the interview including shug's song (sung by miss adrianne lennox in atlanta). the goal is to be much more faithful to the book, rather than the movie you'll be glad to hear! i hope everyone enjoys!
andrew

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3923474
Updated On: 7/7/05 at 01:06 AM

[apdarcey]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 1:29pm

bumpity bump bump.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 2:29pm

yes, the tone of the film is to be avoided. i agree with you margo, that the men were buffoonish--as were most of the attempts at humor. i always thought it looked like a disney film with incest (that whole song of the south opening) rae dawn's character is named "squeak" because of her squeaky voice and in the novel she attempts to emulate shug by becoming a singer. in the film we are never made aware of her story. personally, i thought oprah had great integrity; in fact, the beauty of the actors performances saved the film for me and i bawl like a baby when the sisters are re-united and celie meets her children who grew up gloriously in africa. i am a BIG fan of brenda russell as a songwriter--hope her skills can translate to theater. is heather headley too young for shug? what a great presence and voice she has! this show could be GREAT--i'm saying a prayer right now!

[WillParker]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 3:17pm

I'm a lover of both the novel and the film...it's about the only Speilberg film that i do enjoy. in regards to the stereotypes of the men, is this not told from Celie's point of view? Thru Celie's eyes, would the men not appear domineering, overpowering, etc? Granted, I'm not a semi literate girl/woman of color in the old south, but the movie made sense to me.

In regards to the musical, all I can say is I seriously hope they've done lots of rethinking, reworking & LOTS of rewriting since the Atlanta engagement. It was a disaster. Most of the cast needed to be scrapped (save LaChanze and Adraine Lenox, who sadly will not be rejoining the cast) as did most of the material. Did anyone see that production? hear the songs? "In Miss Celie's Pants"? "Push the Button"? "What Can I Do for You"? PLEASE!!! I could go on. My friend (another lover of both the film and the novel) and I came away saying "Well, the set & lighting design were good."

That said, LaChanze truly was marvelous and I could easily see her winning a Tony for her performance. There were maybe 3 or 4 good songs, but all in all, a BAD night in the theater...worse than "Thou Shalt Not."

Updated On: 7/7/05 at 03:17 PM

[WonderBoy]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 4:18pm

I agree with you Will. I always saw the film as being told from Celie's perspective so, I never took offense to how the males were perceived in the film. I thought it was perfect. I obviously love the film and find it to be a very moving story. I too thought the performances were wonderful.

I have a friend that saw it in Atlanta and said the exact same thing. He too said that it needed to be reworked completely before treading the boards.

I must confess, I am gonna miss "Miss Celies's Blues" from the film but I am anxiously anticipating this show.

[magruder]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 4:29pm

I really have to disagree with this concept that the film is Celie's perspective on the males around her. The film is too straightforward in approach to justify that theory. Nothing implies that you are seeing everything through a skewed perspective. There are so few mainstream Hollywood depictions of black life as it is, and for The Color Purple to have reached a broad audience with its outlandish and destructive stereotypes has always horrified me.

[WillParker]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 4:31pm

ah well...you say potato, i say potahto.

i'm more concerned about this big ole flop of an expensive "musical" that's beginning previews in october. i'm hoping that it's going to be amazing but i'm not holding my breath.

[Kavana]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 4:57pm

Will, i agree with you im scared that this will be a flop

I too saw the show in ATL the only good things i had to say about it were the sets and the church ladies.

I wish it was more like the film
The script was a mess the cast imitated the actors from the film which didnt go over well.

I did not like how La Chanze played Celie she made her too bold and i thought she was supposed to be scared of Mister.

[roquat]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 5:18pm

One of Steven Spielberg's favorite movies growing up actually WAS "Song of the South" (which you can't even get in this country any more, there was so much uproar over the years about the stereotypes) and "The Color Purple" often looks and feels like "Song of the South"! I think it might have worked better if he hadn't flinched from the Celie/Shug romance, and if Tina Turner had taken the role of Shug (it was offered to her, but she declined because she'd "lived too close to that story.") Margaret Avery was fine, but can you imagine the fireworks that casting might have ignited?

[uncageg]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 5:35pm

Nice NPR piece. Hope to see it in previews this fall.

[WillParker]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 5:54pm

kavana, when you say "church ladies" do you mean the trio that was a combination of the "pick-a-little" ladies from music man and andy of the girl groups from Little Shop or Hairspray or Caroline or Change? you LIKED that??? i wanted to hurl large objects at the stage whenever they were on.

[TonyInATL]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 7:46pm

Will, it appears that you and I are in agreement on what we saw of The Color Purple here in Atlanta. As I stated in a thread on the off-topic board, I disliked it so much I debated whether to return for the second act. I think the only thing I liked about it was LaChanze's performance, and I couldn't help but feel badly for her that she was stuck in such a bad production. And as for the church lady trio, they were ok the first time they did their shtick, but after that they were so annoying they made my head hurt.

Of course, judging from the enthusiastic standing O that it got, there were a lot of people who seemed to have enjoyed the show, but it just didn't work for me. It was hard for me to become involved in the story, to feel Celie's plight, to feel anything, because whatever solemn, insightful, character-building moments there might have been were intermixed with bad acting, mediocre to forgettable music, and big dance production numbers (especially the second act jazz routine in Celie's store...excruciating) that really could have been left out. I also wish the creatives had, to use a now cliched expression, "thought outside the box" a little. It's difficult source material to adapt to the stage to begin with, but the show they built ended up being more blandly commercial than artistically daring. They followed the traditional Broadway musical comedy mold, and I'm not entirely convinced that that will work for material like The Color Purple. I wish they'd been more visionary with it than traditionalist.

Regarding the other performances, I like Adriane Lenox, and she sang beautifully, but I found her performance as Shug to be rather weak, and disappointing. She never really brought the character to life; Shug was a bit dull. Saycon Sengbloh, I thought, gave a very nice performance as Nettie. I didn't find Mister to be too terribly menacing, because the actor playing him simply didn't do a good job of making him so. As for the rest of the cast, I hope the richer NY talent pool will improve things there.

I could go on, and on, but I'll just repeat what I've always thought and what's been said here: to wit...the show, as staged in Atlanta, needs a lot of work. In all areas. Even then, I worry about its success on the Great White Way, but I wish it well.