the color purple

Went to see the Color Purple at the Fox Theater on July 30th. 

It was a mostly black affair. As in the crowd though varying in age was predominantly black, with just a sprinkling of white people, which I am sure just decided to come based on curiosity. I didn't enjoy the play as much as I thought I would. I remember seeing the movie a long time ago, and bits and pieces of it stuck out at me. I remembered the actors, that the subject matter was grim and that it was hella long. But not that much of the substance of it remained in my memory. This was partially the reason why I thought I'd go see the play, to refresh my memory and see the darkness played to full effect.

The play was very well done. The actors were very good, not amateurish at all. But my reaction to it was unexpected. 

1) I didn't expect it to be a musical. I must be living under a rock not to have expected that because everyone else was singing along (and had the CD's, etc) but there I was, not expecting it to be a musical. I just thought: subject matter grim, why the singing? I thought I was coming to see a deep dark play, but I guess all plays are musicals these days, who wants to see a play where they don't sing? Me. I was expecting to be carried along the story with everything but music. Nevertheless, the singing was a nice touch. 

Then, (2) it had some funny bits. Not so much funny bits as the actors and the lines being stretched in an effort to rouse the audience, be it with laughter or applause. Not in a natural way, with the flow of the story, almost as if it was forced, as if they wanted the crowd to laugh so let's emphasize that word, gesture, remark, or line and pause slightly while the crowd reacts. 

I was just stuck on grim subject matter, so I wasn't expecting to be guarded towards laughter or applause. I mean, no need for emphasis just say what you want to say and we, of the knowledgeable crowd who attends these things, will know what you mean and if we feel the need to cheer, or applaud then so be it, we will. Needless to say that with all the cueing and pauses for audience reaction I just held a stiff grimace on my face, wondering whatever happened to the solid story I had fallen in love, albeit remembered vaguely, but was so fond of that I decided to shell out money enough to see 4 movies to spend an evening seeing it at the theater. 

Was it a business reason that made them doctor it for audience appeal? Will I see it again, probably not, not unless it's on Broadway sans singing cue heavy drama.