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Color me Purple?
By Jeremy | February 13, 2008
God is the flowers and everything else That was or ever will be. And when you feel the truth so real, And when you love the way you feel, you've found it Just as sure as moonlight bless the night. Like a blade of corn, Like a honeybee, Like a waterfall, All a part of me. Like the color purple, Where did it come from? Open up your eyes, Look what God has done.Lyrics, "Color Purple." Besides a storyline that plays like the Universalist gospel according to Oprah, an unnecessary nude scene, body stockings that leave little to the imagination, and a lesbian romance -- while featuring three children in the cast -- The Color Purple felt very redemptive somehow. Not so redemptive that I would take children to see it (and probably not teens either), but it felt right that a major Broadway production would tackle issues of domestic abuse, sexual abuse, incest, poverty, race, religiosity, sexuality, and other complex social ills as best a secular venue and producers could. I guess what left me saddened was not how this Broadway production treated the issues, but that they are rarely addressed in church, never mind with as much compassion and tenderness. In other, more mundane news, the performances were mesmerizing, especially the understudy who played Celie and Chaka Kahn as Sofia. At first Diana and I were disappointed that Bebe Winans sat last Friday in favor of his understudy, but on hindsight, it would have felt strange seeing the Gospel music legend play Harpo the juke joint owner.
Topics: broadway, color purple, culture, reviews | No Comments »
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