Book: Marsha Norman; Score: Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, Stephen Bray. At: Mercury Theater, 3745 N. Southport Ave. Tickets: 773-325-1700; www.mercurytheaterchicago.com; $22-$59. Runs through: Oct. 27
The big Broadway musical The Color Purple is making news again, not only for its current European debut at the influential Menier Chocolate Factory in London, but locally where it is making its Chicago regional theater debut at the Mercury Theater.
Much has been made in London about how Tony Award-winning director John Doyle (Sweeney Todd) has revised the script and drastically scaled back the size of this 2005 musical based upon Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel and Steven Spielberg's 1985 film adaptation. Reportedly, The Color Purple's set in London is mostly just a bare thrust stage and a few chairs.
Director L. Walter Stearns' approach to The Color Purple in Chicago isn't nearly so stark, even though he has built up a solid reputation for taking big Broadway musicals and presenting them on a more intimate scale as the former artistic director of Porchlight Music Theatre. The Color Purple is another well-executed example of Sterns' fine-tuned work, and it undeniably entertains with an exuberant and hard-working cast.
Trisha Jeffrey stars as Celie, a put-upon girl who is sexually abused and then forced into an abusive marriage to Mister (Keithon Gipson). Celie's main life goal is to be reunited with her sister, Nettie (Crystal Corinne Wood), but she later learns more about herself through a lesbian relationship with Mister's former mistress, the blues singer Shug Avery (Adrienne Walker).
Also helping Celie to overcome the horrendous amount of degradation in her life is the strong-will of Sofia (Jasondra Johnson), the formidable wife of her grown stepson, Harpo (Even Tyrone Martin).
Adding much-needed humor to the proceedings is the Greek Chorus/gossip trio of Doris (Carrie Louise Abernathy), Darlene (Sydney Charles) and Jarene (Brittany L. Bradshaw), along with Nina Snipes as Harpo's mistress, Squeak.
Despite the vocal powerhouse performances, a colorful physical production and a fleet staging by director Stearns with choreographer Brenda Didier, I still find The Color Purpleas a musical itselfto be a dubious proposition.
Marsha Norman's script feels like it is racing to beat the clock to cram in as many plot points as possible from Walker's book, leaving little room for character development or much reflection on major events (particularly when Sofia becomes the victim of an attack and when Celie finds out important news about her long-lost children). The Color Purple's score by pop/R&B song writers Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray also seems to place more value on being catchy and rousing rather than delving too deeply to the characters' motivations and emotions.
The Color Purple does provide a strong message about finding faith from within, even if the musical adaptation only does a so-so job of telegraphing the events of the novel. And as the Mercury production makes clear, The Color Purple can be equally effective on a smaller scale.