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Post by Would've Been The One on May 16, 2007 23:30:57 GMT -5
NEW REVIEW!
The author is John Garcia of Pegasus News.
Michelle Williams (from the world famous singing group, Destiny's Child) portrays "Shug", the blues chanteuse who steals every man and woman's heart she comes in contact with. Ms. Williams gives a youthful performance that seems to use an aura of innocent playfulness to create her characterization. That actually works. She steers from making Shug right off the bat a sensual hot momma, but instead a lonely woman who uses that sensuality as a mask to hide the pain and loneliness. Her chemistry with Bayardelle is faultless. One of my favorite songs in the score is the duet, "What About Love?" which both ladies sing with such passion and vocal strength that it will leave a lump in your throat. Williams does allow her sex kitten to purr, sway, and seduce with the erotic infused number, "Push Da Button". She is another standout within this glittery company.
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Post by Would've Been The One on May 16, 2007 23:32:01 GMT -5
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Post by Would've Been The One on May 16, 2007 23:32:48 GMT -5
NEW SONGS RECORDED
Michelle Williams – 1st Time (B.Ross/Avila) Michelle Williams – Broken Wings (B.Ross/Avila) Michelle Williams – Funky Man (B.Ross/Avila)
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Post by Would've Been The One on May 16, 2007 23:35:21 GMT -5
'The Color Purple' arrives: Confident and in full bloom
THEATER REVIEW
By Chris Jones Tribune theater critic
The Broadway musical version of Alice Walker's great novel "The Color Purple" arrives in sweet home Chicago in the most confident of hues. And a confident sense of creative purpose—in this case, make that spiritual purpose—is the theater's most powerful and most frequently underestimated secret weapon. It can cover almost any weakness. And it surely will help ensure a successful engagement at the Cadillac Palace Theatre.
Despite a long, fraught gestation and mixed reviews on Broadway, "The Color Purple" now fully believes in itself. The hesitation and narrative uncertainty visible when the show was in Atlanta and New York have largely disappeared. This vocally rich musical knows it already has won over the hearts of the paying customers who watch Oprah Winfrey, its most visible producer, and those who go to the theater to be moved emotionally and see a stirring, affirmative story of inspiration.
This is a show that's entirely comfortable with itself. It has time now to amuse and empower the balcony. And, boy, does it play to the gallery. Walker's novel may first have been read mostly in the quiet of the bedroom or the tranquility of the porch on a summer's night, but now more than ever, the musical version turns its ambiguities and uncertainties into a humor-filled Gospel of personal fortitude and collective belief.
At Thursday night's opening, at least, you'd have to have been made of cast iron to resist the ebullient, emotional winds. And they weren't blowing from Lake Michigan. Just from the back of the stage. With a few additional puffs from the direction of Harpo Studios.
Does this musical evoke all the poetry and complexity of the original source? It does not. Does it fully integrate book, visuals and music into a fully coherent artistic metaphor? It does not, for its strands remain varied, eclectic and, in the weaker early sections of the second act, deeply problematic. And as is well documented by now, the musical often has to race inelegantly to fit Walker's rich and complex narrative into two-and-a-half hours on a stage.
But the show always has had integrity, and these flaws are beginning to matter less and less. That's partly because Gary Griffin's warmhearted production seems to have become more at ease with being, for the most part, a musical-comedy event with digressions into serious themes. Broader in style, the production now is filled with carefully timed laugh-lines and comic takes, and with characters who seem very much aware that they're playing in front of an audience.
The Chicago cast has some veterans of the Broadway production — including the charismatic Chicagoan Felicia P. Fields, who originated the role of Sofia, and who has deservedly blossomed with this show into a major national star. Laudably, Marsha Norman's book does not run from the novel's sexual complexities or human cruelties. But still, the joy of life now is getting more emphasis than its inevitable pain. Even the heinous Mister, performed in Chicago by the bizarrely cast Rufus Bonds, Jr., now seems more of a lost, always-redeemable, always-theatrical soul than an angry man filled with the genuinely terrifying violence of sexual anger.
Perhaps the comedy is getting a bit too much focus—but this is a musical, after all, and the end of the show still has many people in tears. And, all in all, I'd say that Chicago is getting the best cast of the three productions I've seen and is enjoying the sharpest direction from Griffin.
Often with Broadway musicals, the second person to play a lead role is the best. So it went here.
In New York, original star LaChanze was electric but, to my mind, invulnerable. Jeannette Bayardelle, the new Celie in Chicago (who also played the role in New York before giving way to the famous Fantasia) is a much softer, warmer, more self-effacing actress who doesn’t seem to crave the spotlight. She winds up slowly, for sure, but she's a superb, endlessly rich singer with a colossal, Gospel-trained voice that accelerates like a rocket ship. You care deeply about her fate. And she is nothing short of spectacular in the show's big, inspiring ballads.
The happiest surprise of the night, though, is Michelle Williams, who plays Shug Avery. Williams came with at least four potential strikes against her—she's young, already somewhat famous, inexperienced on a theatrical stage, and comes from the pop-music world. None of that gets in her way. As you might expect from the former member of Destiny's Child, she knows her way around the show's mostly bluesy, R&B score, penned by the eclectic team of Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray. But she's also a far better actor than you might expect. In this show, she looks and feels nothing like a twentysomething pop idol. She has depth, maturity, variety and complexity.
Shug is, in many ways, Walker's most enigmatic and ambiguous character. Williams dances on that knife edge and yet, given the style of the musical, also knows how to channel her energy for the collective good. At "The Color Purple," the musical, that's the most important requirement.
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Post by Would've Been The One on May 16, 2007 23:36:36 GMT -5
May 3, 2007 (CHICAGO) - Oprah Winfrey is painting the town purple. She attended the Chicago premiere of "The Color Purple" Thursday night. The musical is at the Cadillac Palace Theater. Winfrey starred in the movie "The Color Purple" 21 years ago. She tells ABC7 that when the movie came out, her name was not even on the poster. Now it's a totally different situation. Oprah Winfrey's name is in lights as she presents "The Color Purple." Chicago's superstar, Oprah Winfrey, shined in Chicago Thursday night. "It's like coming home, coming home in a big way," said Winfrey, stepping out on the red carpet at the Cadillac Palace Theater, 151 W. Randolph, to see her production of The Color Purple. "It brought the most powerful experiences of my life to be a part of that movie. The work, the artistry has followed me through my years. It's been a part of my life, The Color Purple," Winfrey said. It's like Hollywood, the fans, cameras and the limo lineup. But Thursday night is the who's who of Chicago. "I think Oprah is so talented. This is just one of her many talents," said Maggie Daley. "Theatergoers in Chicago and the Midwest, they love theater, and this is an example of what we did, rebuilding the theaters downtown," said Mayor Richard M. Daley. The Rev. Jesse Jackson is hitting the town, and Roger Ebert is out and about again, seeing the musical for the first time. "To see anything but a hospital bed is terrific," said Chaz Ebert, Roger's wife. R. Kelly said Thursday night was his seventh time to see the musical. "It really inspired me to be who I am today. I have to check it out...again," said Kelly. Whatever the reason, they all came out Thursday, and Oprah says she would like others to follow. "It's for everybody. It's for every economic group. It's for all genders. Women love it; it's a revival in there for the women," said Winfrey, who added she has seen the production 12 times. abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=5272133
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Post by Would've Been The One on May 18, 2007 13:07:10 GMT -5
This is from ABC7 in Chicago. I guess the show did so well that Michelle will be in the Windy City a little longer! Chicago's favorite color is purple these days! And that means THE COLOR PURPLE will be in Chicago a little longer. The North American Tour of the Broadway smash hit has added an additional six weeks to its Chicago engagement. Tickets for a new block of performances from July 25 through September 2 will go on sale Friday, June 1 at 8 am. Tickets are currently on sale for performances through July 22 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St.. The full article is at: abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=websites&id=5316097
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