Walker's song sung true: 'COLOR PURPLE' | Producer overcomes author's doubts to create adaptation

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(Free-Press-Release.com) April 18, 2007 -- "The Color Purple: The Musical about Love" is in previews at Cadillac Palace Theatre and opens May 3.

The Chicago production already has advance ticket sales of $11 million, indicating that the show's initial 14-week run is nearly sold out.

It follows the success of the original 2005 Broadway production (still playing), which recouped its initial $11 million investment in a year's time.

Though the show's future success on the road is nearly certain, things were far more cloudy eight years ago, when producer Scott Sanders conceived the idea of adapting it.

"So many people told me this would never work," Sanders said. "This story has music in its soul, and I knew I had to find a way to make it happen."

"We knew it would work," added director Gary Griffin, a Chicago theater mainstay. "The story is about an underdog, so it almost makes sense that the musical would be an underdog, too."

Alice in Broadway-land
Far more reluctant was Walker, whose novel was published in 1982.

"She had declined all offers, but I was determined, and so I met with her in Berkeley, Calif., to explain why it would lend itself to a musical," Sanders recalled.

Though rejected, Sanders wasn't deterred. He took one more shot and invited Walker to New York to see a couple of musicals and meet some of his friends.

His persistence and glowing references from some well-known friends like Diana Ross finally paid off. Securing the author's blessing proved to be only one obstacle in the show's journey.

Sanders began to assemble the creative team, rejecting several lyricists, composers and scriptwriters before settling on the show's final creative team. The playwright Marsha Norman was selected to adapt the novel for the stage. Norman had stood alongside Walker in 1983 when both won Pulitzers (Norman for her play " 'Night, Mother" and Walker for Purple).

"Marsha is from the South and very witty, and the fact they shared the Pulitzer connection made her an obvious choice," Sanders said.

For the score, Sanders went with a trio of composer-lyricists he knew from his days in the music industry: Brenda Russell (who penned Oleta Adams' hit "Get Here"), Stephen Bray (writer-producer for countless hits by Madonna) and Allee Willis ("Boogie Wonderland" and others). None had ever written for the stage.

If the show was not typical Broadway fare, neither was its music. "The voice of the show is not a mainstream musical theater voice," Griffin said.

Source: http://www.msn.com
Posted by Misha Davenport