Indy Theatre Habit

I am working on a full review of “The Color Purple: The Musical About Love,” which I saw and loved at Clowes Hall on Tuesday night.  However, I am not going to be able to finish writing it before the end of the year.  (The year ends in less than seven hours, you know, and I have a dinner engagement in less than two.)

So…I am going to pretend to be one of the show’s Church Ladies (pictured above in a photo by Paul Kolnik, from left: Lynette DuPree, Virgina Ann Woodruff, and Kimberly Ann Harris) and give you the short, over-the-back-fence version right now in an attempt to tide us all over until next year:

If you have never read the Pulizer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker or seen the Steven Spielberg movie, you will be able to follow the basic inspiring story about a girl who survives unspeakable hardships in the stage version, and you will find lots of visual and aural beauty to enjoy, but some parts of the story have been left out, so you probably still won’t fully understand what all the fuss was about in terms of the other forms.

If you only saw the movie, you will understand more of the staged version, and you will appreciate the ways in which the staged version tells the story in fresh ways, artistically.  As I say, there is a lot of both visual and aural beauty in this production.

BUT…

… if you read and loved the novel, this show is a treat.  Some of the most powerful parts of the novel are presented here in new and yet still satisfying ways that make them resonate even more deeply.  I wept at the end of the show, dried my eyes, and wept again when I got out to my car.

The tiny woman who plays the lead, Celie (Kenita R. Miller), is very different from the person who played her in the movie, but completely believable – more in line with how I imagined the complex character to be after only reading the novel, in fact – and with a big, beautiful Broadway singing voice.

PLUS the sexy fat woman (Sophia, played by Felicia P. Fields) gets to sing a fun, sexy song with her husband (Harpo, played by hunky Stu James.)  Don’t anyone send me hate mail for using the “f” word or for making a big a deal out of relatively small part of the story.  It was a big deal to me, and I promise to use euphemisms in my full review.

I have a lot more that I want to appreciate about this show in writing, so please check back tomorrow.  In the meantime, if you have been thinking of seeing this show, you had better just go.  It has a limited engagement.  Here is the box office scoop from the press release I received:

THE COLOR PURPLE will play Clowes Memorial Hall December 29- January 3, 2010: Tuesday-Thursday at 7:30PM, Friday at 8:00PM, Saturday at 2:00PM and 8:00PM, and Sunday at 1:00PM and 6:30PM.

Tickets range in price from $20- $70 depending on the seat location and performance date and may be purchased from an authorized ticket agent online at BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com, in person at the Clowes Memorial Hall Box Office, downtown at the Murat Theatre or the Broadway Across America Box Office or by phone at 1-800-982-2787. Groups of 15 or more are available by calling 317-632-5182 ext 103.

Happy New Year!

Hope Baugh – www.IndyTheatreHabit.com and @IndyTheatre on Twitter.com.