The Color Purple: The Musical

Alice Walker published The Color Purple in 1982, and the novel won a Pulitzer Prize in 1983. The story begins in 1909 in rural Georgia and follows the traumatic life of Celie, a fourteen-year-old black girl who is forced to marry an older man after suffering years of abuse by her father. Celie’s life unfolds for the reader as she continues to suffer hardships, alongside several other powerful black female voices. Eventually Celie triumphs, finding a place for herself where she can just be.

Just three short years after the book was published, the movie adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg was released. The movie launched the careers of Whoopi Goldberg, who plays Celie, and Oprah Winfrey, who plays Sofia. The film was a success, ranking 4th that year in overall sales and earning eleven Oscar nominations.

In November 2005, Broadway released a musical adaptation of the novel, written by Marsha Norman with music and lyrics by Allee Willis, Brenda Russell, and Stephen Bray. The show ran through February of 2008. Click here for full cast and crew. Ten years later, the musical was revived on Broadway with new cast members. Click here for full cast and crew.

A new film adaptation of The Color Purple is hitting theaters on Christmas day, 2023. The film is a musical based on Marsha Norman’s Broadway book from 2005 and will be much different than the 1985 film adaptation. The musical focuses more on the relationship between Celie and Shug, played by Fantasia and Taraji P. Henson respectively. Though different than the 1985 film, the musical version still follows Walker’s book, with some saying the musical is a truer adaptation than the 1985 film. I suppose we will have to see for ourselves when the movie releases. For full cast and crew, click here.

The RiverShare Library system has several copies of the classic, if you would like to read the book before watching the musical. You can also checkout the 1985 movie as well.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Color Purple 1985 Film Adaptation

If you are lover of musicals, check out these titles from The Library’s collection.

Dreamgirls

The Greatest Showman

La La Land

Purple Rain

Sparkle

The Wiz 

New CDs for July

Blink-192 — California

Nearly five years after their last album, Blink-182 releases their seventh studio album. It marks a change for the band as Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba joins the group.

 

 

 

Jake Owen — American Love

Country star Jake Owen releases his fifth studio album, which includes the single American Country Love Song.

 

 
Hillary Scott & The Scott Family — Love Remains

A collection of thirteen faith-based songs featuring Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott, her mom Linda Davis, father Lang Scott, and little sister Rylee Scott, all produced by Ricky Skaggs.

 
Steven Tyler — We’re All Somebody from Somewhere

A highly anticipated first solo country album from Steven Tyler, the voice of rock band Aerosmith. His first single, Love Is Your Name, hit number one on the Billboard Country Streaming Songs chart.

 
Switchfoot — Where the Light Shines Through

For the first time in ten years, Switchfoot went back to the studio with producer John Fields to work on their tenth studio album. While moving forward, the band does look back, and there is a lot of nostalgia flowing through the album.

 
Various Artists — Hamilton Original Broadway Cast Recording

With its unique mix of history and hip-hop, Hamilton has become one of the most talked-about productions on Broadway.

DVDs for March

March 6

Footloose – Julianne Hough, Dennis Quaid

Ren MacCormack moves from Boston to the small town of Bomont, where loud music and dancing are prohibited. Not one to bow to the status quo, Ren challenges the ban, revitalizes the town, and falls in love with the minister’s troubled daughter, Ariel. Rated PG-13

March 13

Melancholia – Kirsten Dunst, Alexander Skarsgard

In this beautifully filmed movie about the end of the world, Justine and Michael are celebrating their marriage. A planet called Melancholia is heading directly toward Earth and threatening to collide. Meanwhile, tensions are mounting and relationships are fraying as the family deals with their fears. Rated R

My Week with Marilyn – Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne

In the summer of 1956, Colin Clark worked as a lowly assistant on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl, the film that famously united Sir Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. When his diary account was published, one week was missing. This is the story of that week: an idyll in which he escorted a Monroe desperate to get away from Hollywood hangers-on and the pressures of work. Rated R

March 20

The Muppets – Jason Siegel, Kermit-the-Frog, Miss Piggy, Amy Adams

On vacation in Los Angeles, Walter, the world’s biggest Muppet fan, and his friends Gary and Mary, discover the nefarious plan of oilman Tex Richman to raze the Muppet Theater and drill for the oil recently discovered beneath the Muppets’ former stomping grounds. To stage the Greatest Muppet Telethon Ever and raise the $10 million needed to save the theater, Walter, Mary, and Gary help Kermit reunite the Muppets. Rated PG

J Edgar – Leonardo DiCaprio

J. Edgar Hoover was head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for nearly 50 years. Hoover was feared, admired, reviled, and revered, a man who could distort the truth as easily as he upheld it. His methods were at once ruthless and heroic, with the admiration of the world his most coveted prize. But behind closed doors, he held secrets that would have destroyed his image, his career, and his life. Rated R

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo– Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig

Hoping to distance himself from the fallout of a libel conviction, journalist Mikael Blomkvist retreats to a remote island where the unsolved murder of a young girl still haunts her industrialist uncle forty years later.  Blomkvist’s investigation draws him into the secrets and lies of the rich and powerful, and throws him together with one unlikely ally: tattooed, punk hacker, Lisbeth Salander. Rated R.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Gary Oldman, Colin Firth

At the height of the Cold War, a precarious operation goes deadly wrong, and the head of British Intelligence wonders if a double agent is leaking vital secrets. Brought out of retirement to expose the potential mole, master spy George Smiley is the only one who can be trusted to expose one of their own. Or can he? Rated R