The reviews for The Color Purple are in and the critics universally admire this new production based on Alice Walker’s 1982 novel. This powerful musical, unlike its 2005 predecessor, feels stripped bare, leaving the raw heart of the story in clear focus. The design, the direction, and the performances – most notably from the soon-to-be-star Cynthia Erivo and the bona fide star Jennifer Hudson – all work in support of the emotional story and songs. Whether you’ve read the book, seen the movie, or even seen the original Broadway production, this new take brings rich, extraordinary depth to a story worth experiencing again.
NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW OF THE COLOR PURPLE
Give thanks this morning, children of Broadway, and throw in a hearty hallelujah. “The Color Purple” has been born again, and its conversion is a glory to behold. The heart-clutching, gospel-flavored musical that opened at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater on Thursday night — in a production led by an incandescent…
Seeing “The Color Purple” on Broadway, a decade after its premiere, is like meeting an old friend who has gotten her life together since the last time you saw her. It seems more confident in itself, surer in its sexuality, and it’s lost a lot of weight; the cast of John Doyle’s revival and the theater in which…
Wow, what a difference a more-focused production makes. When the musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s searing story of abuse and deliverance, “The Color Purple,” premiered on Broadway in 2005, its rewards were compromised by the messy and emphatic qualities of the overblown production. Ten years later…
The ladies wear the pants in John Doyle’s ravishing revival of “The Color Purple.” Jennifer Hudson is radiant as the love machine Shug Avery. Danielle Brooks shakes the house as the earthy Sofia. And Cynthia Erivo, the tiny pint of dynamite who originated the role at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London…
Here is one of the great triumphal surprises in a Broadway season that has had its share of them: A revival of “The Color Purple” that lifts an already formidable musical into greatness just seven years after its initial run closed. Propelled by a pair of knockout performances from Jennifer Hudson and Cynthia…
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2 thoughts on “The Reviews for THE COLOR PURPLE are In…”
Broadway Musical Blog 
Hey–as a midwesterner who likes to get to NYC now and then, great to find this blog! I don’t write much about theater, but on this occasion I did.
http://www.chicagonow.com/downsize-maybe/2015/12/the-force-was-with-me-in-1968-my-favorite-theater/
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