[NEohioPAL] Berko review: THE COLOR PURPLE (Playhouse Square--Palace Theatre)

[Roy Berko]

‘THE COLOR PURPLE’ slightly off hue at The Palace

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

Lorain County Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News
Times--Olmsted-Fairview Times	

--coolcleveland.com--

When ‘THE COLOR PURPLE,’ which is now being presented
at The Palace Theatre in Playhouse Square, opened on
Broadway, it was greeted with mixed reviews.  Comments
included ‘the first act was quite good, but the second
act slowly subsides into a mess of molasses,”  “it is
often moving,”  and, “The disheartening lack of
quality in the material dilutes the quality of feeling
and makes the meanings behind it look questionable as
well."

In spite of the less than stellar evaluations, the
show, which opened in 2005 ran until 2008, clocking up
a respectable 910 performances. 

How did this happen?  Two strong concepts seemed to
push the box office.  First was that one of the show’s
producers was Oprah Winfrey who continued to plug the
show on her syndicated show.  The second was the
positive vibe of the 1986 Steven Spielberg film that
earned eleven Oscar nomination for the adaptation of
Alice Walker’s novel.  

Set in Georgia, the family saga spans the era from
1910 to the 1940s.  It relates the story of a Black
woman who, through sheer will, carves out her unique
place in the world.  The  victim of incest and 
spousal abuse, the put-upon Celie stumbles upon role
models who expose her to other ways to live and help
convince the shy and appeasing woman to take a stand,
and blossom into a self-confident person.

The music and lyrics, written by Brenda Russell, Allee
Willis and Stephen Bray, are not memorable.  In
contrast to many Broadway shows, none of the songs has
become well known.   That doesn’t mean the score is
bad, it just doesn’t have any outstanding numbers. 
You will not go out whistling or humming any of the
tunes.

The touring company does an acceptable job of working
with the script.  However, the pacing was
lackadaisical.  Since the production has been on the
road for a while, the cast may have just gotten into a
groove and is operating on automatic pilot or maybe
they just hadn’t adjusted to the scourge of touring
shows,  rushing from one city to another with no time
to settle in.  

The general topic of conversation at intermission was
the difficulty people were having hearing and
understanding the spoken and sung words.  As happened
with the recently closed ‘WICKED,’ the sound system
simply was not well tuned.  There were buzzes,
sometimes performers spoke and their microphones
weren’t on, and the general balance levels were poor. 
 There were also some problem in the timing of the
lighting effects.

Though the choreography often lacked creativity, there
were several staging highlights, including “Hell No!,”
which examines the roles of husbands and wives; “Push
Da Button,” and “Any Little Thing.” 

The cast was generally good.  Jeannette Bayardelle,
who portrayed Celie, has a strong voice.  Her “I’m
Here” was the show’s musical highlight.   Through
vacant looking eyes, she well developed the put-upon
young lady.   Her physical transformation into a
confident woman later in the show was masterfully
done.

The audience favorite was Felicia Fields as the
take-no-prisoners, outspoken, domineering Sofia.  The
Church Ladies, who often over-acted, brought gales of
laughter.  Shaker Heights native Rufus Bonds, Jr., was
appropriately obnoxious as Mister, Celie’s despicable
husband.

It was interesting to observe the differences between
the African American and Euro American audience
members.  Used to the answer-back style of oratory, in
which audience members shout out agreement with a
speaker or preacher, many of the Black members of the
audience responded verbally to the play’s lines and
reacted to the treatment of various characters.  In
contrast, white audience members often seemed startled
by the audience participation and some even attempted
to “shush” those who were verbally reacting.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:   Don’t go to ‘THE COLOR PURPLE’
expecting to experience a classic musical theatre
production.  This is definitely not ‘WEST SIDE STORY,’
‘CHORUS LINE,’ or even ‘WICKED.’   But, go to
experience a culture-specific story, somewhat
adequately developed and performed.

‘THE COLOR PURPLE’ runs through April 8.  Tickets can
be ordered by calling 216-241-6000 or going to
www.playhousesquare.org.


Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 2007, as well as his consulting and publications information, can be found at http://royberko.info
      
Roy's theatre and dance reviews appear regularly on NeOHIOpal, an on-line source.   To subscribe to this free service via the World Wide Web, visit http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/neohiopal.  His reviews also appear on www.coolcleveland.com


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