As the calendar rolls into the festive season of 2023, movie enthusiasts and fans of the original book anticipate the arrival of a cinematic gem – the new movie adaptation of the beloved musical The Color Purple.
The highly anticipated release promises to captivate audiences with its powerful storytelling, exceptional cast, and a vibrant celebration of the human spirit.
The Color Purple started as an incredibly important book, and back in the ’80s, it was turned into an equally-as-meaningful movie. Years later, it found its way to Broadway as a musical (winning a Tony during its revival). Now, the musical version of the story is a movie once again.
Some will be unhappy to see that a large portion of the lesbian love story — which made this tale of particular interest to the LGBTQ community — has been removed from this version, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth seeing. For more of that, check out the other version of The Color Purple.
Before you head to theaters to see the film, let’s delve into everything you need to know.
What Is The Color Purple About?
The Color Purple is a poignant and emotionally charged tale that focuses on the life of Celie, an African American woman in the early twentieth century who has to endure incredible suffering, but who also finds love and happiness in unexpected places and ways.
Adapted from Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the story unfolds against a backdrop of racial and gender inequality, chronicling Celie’s journey from oppression to empowerment. With themes of sisterhood, love, and the enduring strength of the human spirit, The Color Purple is a timeless narrative that continues to resonate with audiences worldwide — and even find new people to reach as it continues to be adapted in new ways.
Leading the ensemble is the incomparable Fantasia Barrino, one of the former winners of American Idol. The Grammy-winning singer takes on the main role of Celie, and she does so beautifully. Alongside Barrino, the film also stars Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, H.E.R., and even the Little Mermaid herself, Halle Bailey.
When Is The Color Purple’s Release Date?
The musical film The Color Purple will officially be released to theaters nationwide on Christmas Day — December 25, 2023.
Where Is The Color Purple Streaming?
Since The Color Purple hasn’t even been released to theaters just yet, it doesn’t have a home on any streaming platform. Warner Bros. is the distributor, so chances are good it will land on HBO and Max.
Steven Spielberg’s 1985 movie is currently streaming on Max, and is available for purchase or rental through Vudu, iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon.
Who Worked On The Color Purple?
The Color Purple was directed by the brilliant Blitz Bazawule, a Ghanaian talent who is very much on the rise in Hollywood. He is perhaps best known for directing Beyoncé’s Black Is King, for which he earned a Grammy nomination.
The movie was produced by some of the top heavyweights in the entertainment industry, including Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Scott Sanders, and Quincy Jones — many of whom were involved in the original film as well. The movie’s screenplay was penned by Marcus Gardley.
Defying the adage that the lady needs no introduction, Bruce David Klein’s captivating documentary Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story extends a four-minute introduction to its larger-than-life subject Liza Minnelli before the film truly enters the breach, touching down on June 22, 1969, the day her mother Judy Garland died.
In the midst of the preamble performance clips -- presenting Liza as a gangly ingenue onstage with her mother, and as a superstar commanding the world’s stages on her own -- Klein runs amusing outtakes of Liza, present-day, sitting for interviews but not at all passively. Dressed in head-to-toe black, her trademark pixie cut topped by a newsboy cap, she commands the room tenaciously, directing the cameraman on how to shoot her.
Blessed with a sweet yet sturdy redemption story, Sister Act, based on the hit 1992 film starring Whoopi Goldberg, is a natural fit as a screen-to-stage musical.
The tale of lounge singer Deloris Van Cartier hiding out from her murderous crime boss boyfriend in the last place he'd think to look for her -- a convent full of singing nuns -- eagerly lends itself to set-pieces full of singing and dancing.
Composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater's score of catchy original tunes are paired with a solid book by Cheri Steinkellner and Bill Steinkellner, and additional material by Douglas Carter Beane.
With the well-timed arch of an eyebrow, or just a sharp glance, Nathan Lee Graham can command a scene in silence, well before he unleashes some artful, perfectly enunciated turn of phrase.
The actor has been brandishing his enviable diction and expressive mien for decades on Broadway, in The Wild Party and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, in films from Zoolander to Theater Camp, and on TV shows, like the new Hulu sitcom Mid-Century Modern, where he stars with Nathan Lane and Matt Bomer as three mature gay friends who move in together à la The Golden Girls.
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