iTunes Exclusive Episode The Color Purple The Musical

Music
Music
Music
Music
Music
Greetings Empire member and or members. If you are hearing the sound of my voice currently it means the following conditions have been met.
At least once in your life you have checked out the clubhouse podcast live every Sunday night 7 Eastern for Pacific.
We like to call ourselves your one stop shop for all things pop culture. But it also means you subscribe to this little show on your favorite podcasting app with the kids with the clothes in the hair.
Because it is time for iTunes exclusive number 347.
Welcome. My name is Rob I am the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast and everything you do.
But I am not alone for this as I rarely am. Joining me across the desk is the official fact checker of this show.
And a man that kind of dropped a startling revelation as it pertains to what we are about to talk about.
You may know him as fondongo but his mom and even don't forward I am going to call him don't forward welcome sir.
My car my starter works it doesn't revel.
Startling revelation no no no no you don't get to do that one I'm sorry you will file that at your earliest possible convenience.
Also joining us for this particular episode he returned and then he didn't and then he returned again.
He's back in the co-host chair. He's actually over the flu that is engulfed the world.
But he's back in the city of Chaz back welcome sir.
How you doing my friend man I'm just old.
That's true.
Whatever we do one of these things it is to review something and this one is no exception.
It's been a while since we all together corporately reviewed a stage production.
So let's get on it because we're going to talk about something currently featured at Music Hall at Fair Park here in Dallas through February the 4th.
But it is the national touring company of the color purple the musical.
Before we start this whole thing.
Yes sir.
We got to thank Paul that everybody at Dallas summer musicals.
We're so happy that they get like have us come out and we can see these productions.
So I'm telling you.
Put your seatbelt on because there is and strap in because there's going to be some great stuff coming in the next 18 months.
Oh yeah.
We already know what's going to happen next season and this season just started.
Oh yeah.
Oh you haven't seen the lineup of Dallas summer musicals.
I have from the next year.
My friend dear good mercy.
Miss Saigon.
That's bucket list for me brother.
Yeah I know.
But we're not going to talk about that.
We're here to talk about the color purple.
But thank you so much to everybody over at Dallas summer musicals for giving us the opportunity to come check out your productions.
And that way we can talk about them with the empire and help them make sure they can make the best decisions they can with their entertainment dollar.
So here's the deal.
If you've never heard of the color purple first of all welcome back from the cave.
We appreciate you dropping by listening in.
I heard of it but never saw it.
But never saw it.
And now you just buried the leaf.
Oh okay.
I was trying to bury the leaf a little bit.
I know it by the way but go ahead.
This takes place in the South.
Make sure you talk right into the thing.
Not to the South.
Jarger.
We're going to fix that.
We may want to turn it so it's more like this.
This thing's not like you turn it like this.
Do one of those.
There you go.
That's going to help you a lot more.
It's not.
We'll figure it out.
That's why I love this story.
This show goes out the way it does.
Warts and all.
We don't care.
There are.
There goes.
This is the first half of the 20th century in the South.
1930s.
Well it's sometime in the first 40 years.
It starts in like 1904.
Yeah it's the first half of the century.
I believe it said it.
It's in the South.
There's many different locales that happen here.
Because there's a sea much there.
Yeah but it's more cities.
It's a bunch of different cities.
But it is the story of Celie who in this particular juncture is played by Adrianna Hicks.
She is a young lady who basically is a slave to her own family.
And in doing so did I screw that up?
No I got that right.
I can't read today.
What's going on with me?
Welcome to the club.
She is basically in an abusive family.
And her dad sells her off to Mr.
Who in this particular production is played by Gavin Gregory.
He actually wants to marry her sister Nettie played by Nijame Kamara.
But he has to settle for Celie and pretty much treats her like dirt.
The sisters are very very close.
They're pretty much all they have.
Yes almost literally.
And when Celie stops hearing from her sister she thinks her sister is dead.
Finds out later that she's not under some other circumstances.
Because she's dealing with basically being a de facto mother to Mr.
He's just kids as well as dealing with his older son Harpo,
which he is played by Jake Dottrie, as well as a flame from his past in Shug Avery,
played by Carla R Stewart and all of the high jinx they're in.
If you don't, if you want to know more than that, go do your research.
I'm not giving away too much.
The book's been around since 82.
Right.
And the film was made in 85.
Right.
The book, Wippy Goldberg and Oprah in their acting debuts.
Danny Glover.
Right on Chong is in the film.
It off Caesar.
Yeah, this thing was everywhere for a while.
And then it became a Broadway musical and then it went away.
And then it came back and wins best revival at the Tonys.
Nominated for was it 10 Academy Awards.
Something like that.
Nominated for five Golden Globes, which Wippy Goldberg won the Golden Globe for.
But here's the thing.
As we were getting settled in to see this, hearing Don say he'd never really,
he never saw the film.
He knew of it.
But he didn't know it.
I was really interested to see how Don saw this.
Right.
Because if you've ever seen the film.
It can be a tough watch.
Yes, it is.
It can be a very, very tough watch.
Yeah, I mean, I asked what this is about in the basic plot.
And you gave me the crayons and the color.
Yeah, we kind of asked Buck.
Yeah, because we really tried to tell you the story going into it.
It was more important for me to see what you got out of it going to see it as a musical.
Because we don't know much about the musical going in.
Right.
Just that it's going to be the story.
And it's a relatively complex story and it's really hard to.
There you go.
Yeah, found you.
And it's really hard to kind of sum it up in a nutshell right before the curtain goes up.
I mean, the Wikipedia page for the book is just like scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll.
Exactly.
During the first act, I leaned over to you.
And I was like, I'm now even more curious as to how Don sees this.
Because this production, the way it's structured, some of the songs written by the great Brenda Russell,
if you remember piano in the dark back in the day, it's almost abstract in its storytelling.
Because the set is very simplistic.
There are three for lack of a better term columns across the back of the stage.
If you want to call them that.
Yeah, they have.
They're wooden columns that have wooden chairs hanging on.
Some of those chairs are removed for certain scenes.
But it's all closed baskets and chairs.
And that's what kind of bug me.
We've seen plenty of productions where they don't have much of a set.
One of your personal favorites was like that when you saw one.
Yeah, but the thing was that backdrop looked like something from an Andy Warhol museum.
And you said that in your written review, currently located at www.theclubhousepodcast.com.
It did fit that Southern website.
Thank you.
Well, you can't put that much on it.
Yeah, it's our website.
That's our website.
But it didn't fit.
If they had something kind of other backdrop that would fit what this film is about,
Southern and stuff like that.
It was too artsy for what it was.
And I don't care.
We've seen plenty of productions where there is no real backdrop or anything.
And the sets don't change.
And all you have to use your imagination.
Right.
And it works.
But this one, I would columns that look artsy with chairs on them.
I don't get it.
Well, I think, and that was one of the things I was curious about.
Yeah.
Because for me, someone who knows the story, and I've seen the film,
you've read the book multiple times, I have not.
It kind of made sense to me in the context of it being, you know, very raw, very,
it looks like it's meant to look ricketedly put together if that's a word.
So for me to frame it around that poor,
poor that sometimes poor that thinks they're rich, kind of environment,
it made sense to me, but it wasn't logical.
But with the chairs, if they have the chairs on there, that'd even be better.
But that's a state set.
I think I have, I think I have a, a germ of an idea for that.
Please, what was the single most iconic image of the film?
The rocking chair.
Her sitting in the rocking chair.
That's what I think they were trying to play off of that imagery.
Because people immediately associate the color purple with that one.
That's silhouette of ceiling.
That's silhouette of ceiling in the rocking chair.
With ceiling in the rocking chair in white.
Reading with that he's letter more or less.
Right.
And the background being purple.
Right.
And that's why I didn't, I was like, okay, I kind of get where they're going with this.
Right.
And it's hard to pull off a rocking chair in a stage production without the noise interfering
with the rocking chair itself on the stage.
Yeah. So they simplified it to be just a regular chair.
Just sitting chairs.
Yeah.
And like I said earlier, it borderlines on the abstract in certain sections.
Because the story is kind of told at a breakneck pace, where you're getting,
it's almost like you're getting the bullet points of the story without...
And I don't even, the only way I can say this, and it's not exactly what I'm trying to think,
is you lose a lot of the emotion of the story.
One subplot in particular that I mentioned in my written review where...
At www.theclubhousepodcast.com.
That's our website.
Thank you.
So what I want to say is that the relationship between Shug Avery and her father isn't really
even a threat.
Yeah, I mean, it's just kind of like, hey, my dad's a preacher.
Don't talk about preachers around me.
And that's it.
That's the only mention he gets.
And in the film and in the book, you see that there's a strange relationship between her,
her father and herself.
Because she's kind of like the local girl made, you know, she made a name for herself
as it attained celebrity status, and he's the town preacher.
And she kind of became the local joint Jezebel, so to speak.
Great song.
And nice.
And the other thing for me was the story arc of Sophia, who is played here brilliantly.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
By Kerry Compete.
I think that's right.
I think so.
And there's a point of it where it has the Dwayne Johnson walking tall syndrome.
And what I mean by that, if you've ever seen Dwayne's version of that story, it's,
Hi, I'm here in town.
Now I'm in jail.
Now I'm the sheriff.
Now I'm going to take, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
And that's all within like 10 minutes.
Yeah.
We're in the second act.
Sophia's storyline takes a turn.
A major, major turn.
But it's almost a passing mention.
Where this thing happens, and then she's here, and then all of a sudden she's here, but then she's back.
It's, it was too quick.
And I don't want to go too deep into if you don't know the story because it's a major point in the story.
But it was kind of like, whoa, like, I need to see more of that now.
That being said, this is a weird case for me.
Because, like I said, it just moves in such a quick pace that you lose the emotion.
But this cast picks up that slack so brilliantly that they are able to put some emotion back into it.
But I think the emotion for me, and I'm pretty sure the emotion for you comes from the fact that we know where that story's going.
Right.
So there's certain moments where I'm like, oh, I know, I know this is going to get, but for somebody like Don,
who doesn't know anything about the story, I'm anxious to know, was there any emotion in this for you,
and your lovely wife, who was with you?
Was there any emotion in there for you, as you guys watched this?
And this is one thing, me in the Fantastic Fate 4, disagreed on a little bit.
Hi, Faith.
Love you.
Even though we disagree on this, and I never did that.
But we were talking on the way back, we were driving back home after the production.
They've done, if you go to my written review at www.theclubhouseplotcast.com.
That's our website.
I put on there that the intro paragraph is there's been many films in the past that are classics that they turn into Broadway's productions from musicals.
And it works.
Christmas story is one example.
This did not work at all.
The emotion is not enough in there because they rushed the storyline.
It was more, all we care about is the music.
There's a lot of music here.
And too much music and not enough pot.
And it was kind of like, I was thinking while I was watching the production that night,
you know, it's like, should we try doing kill, build a musical?
Or should we try doing jaws, the musical?
And the way they did this is, let's say they...
You're getting the SpongeBob Square Pan.
Let's say they tried jaws, the musical, song, song.
Oh, there's a shark in water.
Don't swim in water.
Don't swim in the show.
Yeah, there's another three or four songs.
And it's like, the shark ate somebody.
Then another three or four songs.
Or we can go hunt the shark.
Three or four songs.
And another two or three minutes.
We're going to need a bigger boat.
Yeah, it was all too much emphasis on the music and not the serious storyline.
There's one point where there was one song where they're middle of a song.
And all of a sudden, Mr. comes in and says something from the piece of paper,
because I know it won't be spoiler free.
And they're like, oh, okay.
Well, okay.
They spent 30 seconds on it.
And then they go back to finishing that song.
And they do the other three songs.
If that was in the movie, I'd be very guaranteed.
That was a major pivotal point in the movie.
I remember the movie.
Yeah, the movie's not a musical.
I know.
But the thing is, in the storyline and musical, that little thing that they spent
just 20 seconds on was a big part in the movie.
I'm willing to guarantee.
Too much music.
Too much song.
Sing, sing, sing, oh, the little bit of plot.
Sing, sing, sing, a little bit of plot.
Oh, wow.
There's a plot in this.
Oh, yeah.
We forgot.
There's a little bit of plot.
Yeah, bugged me too much.
Well, see, and herein lies the problem with that.
And this is something that I was concerned about.
Okay.
And I figured it was something that was going to really mess him up pretty bad,
because he is so, he was completely, this is all alien to him.
Absolutely.
And he'd never seen it.
And I'm so, I'm like, I'm sitting or saying the dialogue along with it,
because I've seen this thing a thousand times.
And I'm thinking for the uninitiated, whenever you've got, like,
Sondheim is really fond of doing things like this, where he's got
person on stage right, singing their dialogue, person on stage left,
singing their dialogue.
It ain't in harmony.
It's, it's conflicting each other, and it steps all over each other.
So if you don't know what's being said,
in the opening-
In the opening number, especially, that happened.
And there were, there were a couple of technical difficulties.
There were some phasing issues with some of the mics that was going on,
and that was a little distracting.
But I agree.
There was, it's, it's the frozen syndrome for me.
Yeah.
Well, no, it's that, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, talk.
Sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, talk.
But I kind of expect that nowadays.
That's kind of what the formula for a musical is.
It really is.
It is.
They put too much on the scene and not the main plot.
Oh, yeah, there's a major thing.
Let's spend 10 seconds on it.
Now, when you say plot, are you saying, are you meaning dialogue?
No, he's saying the story line.
The major storyline point.
Now, I, I agree with him in that aspect.
And in my written review, which is also currently located at www.theclubhousepodcast.com.
Which is still our website.
I talk about how I don't often, like a lot of times going into a film or going into a musical.
I will tell people, if you don't know anything, don't do the research, just go enjoy this for what this is.
To me, this musical is more of a companion piece to, to the versions that have come before.
Then they stand alone.
There are certain moments in this that I was just like, wow, that brought me back to that place.
But again, for somebody like Don, who's unfamiliar with it, I can totally understand.
We have this running joke where we're ready for Don at the end of the mission to go,
okay, can somebody explain to me what happened?
Because he does.
But in this case, I was like, if he doesn't do this, I'll be shocked.
Because there are moments where I was like, okay, that's where we are.
It was moving so fast and there was just, it was so vague in certain points.
You don't get enough time to have an emotional investment.
But again, this cast does everything they can to get as much juice from the oranges possible.
Because these performances are nothing short of brilliant.
And it's been a long time since I can say a cast as a whole was as strong as this cast.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I'm telling a story while singing like I'm a miss.
That works.
Coming up later this year.
Yeah, but this did not do it that way.
But let's talk about these performances.
Oh, the singing wasn't great.
But here's my problem.
It was piped in music.
It was not.
It was not.
That was my thing I meant to tell you before we go on the air.
Because they were off stage.
Because when you go to a production, sometimes there's a little screen that sits right on the balcony.
And that screen shows the conductor.
So that way the people on stage can see what count is.
There was no orchestra pit in this.
Yeah, exactly.
But the band was off stage.
Oh, were they?
Yes.
Honestly, I think that was a missed opportunity given that one of the central focal points of this story takes place in a joint.
I thought that would have been a brilliant.
They have the musicians on stage on stage.
I just wonder from a from a blocking standpoint.
They probably couldn't transition it well.
I guess not.
I guess.
But let's talk.
I mean, let's let's get to these performances.
Adrian Hicks who played Seely.
And we mentioned her earlier.
You were a little concerned as it got up and running.
That there wasn't enough emotion out of her.
I think her performance.
And I think it's because of the way the characters are written.
I thought her performance in act two was much, much stronger because they gave her more to work with.
Right.
They gave her more to work with than she was starting to get her.
She got her mojo.
She got her mojo working.
And yeah, and that's one of the things I meant to mention earlier was that through the bulk of the first act, everything all of her delivery was very, very flat, very monotonous.
And I get it.
Seely is a broken woman.
Seely is a woman who has no spirit left, especially once Nettie leaves her life.
And it starts to come back whenever Shug Avery enters her life.
And then it gets worse again as Shug Lee.
Right.
Right.
But she maintained her.
I am woman.
Hear me roar.
I've got strength now.
And once that redemption happens, I think you get to see more of her, but she plays it well.
I mean, she plays it solid.
When she blossoms, it's a sight to be heard.
Her work with Gavin Gregory, I think, is nothing short of brilliant.
Their chemistry was dead on, you know, where, and especially when you take a performance like Mr. Who has to have a complete story arc.
The thing about Mr.'s character is there is a complete story arc involved here.
He's very close to his own journey, but he knows his journey can't overshadow Seely's.
Right.
Then you're going to get to, and debate me on this, Carla R. Stewart dropped a mic.
She as Shug Avery absolutely destroyed.
Well, and something that still kind of baffles me is that the two iconic musical numbers from the film don't show up.
There is no Miss Seely's blues.
There is no God's trying to tell you something, which really bothered me.
But then again, if you're not ahead of the sad involved, there's no, but I also think that they really wanted to have its own identity.
True.
It was just part of it.
Now, and then for me, I really like the touch of the three church ladies.
Very kind of great chorus type of.
Yeah, very Mick Beth, the three witches.
Like, we're going to be here just enough to keep things moving.
And there are some nice moments themselves.
Gorgeous harmonies between these three ladies.
To me, they were like the women on the vase in Hercules.
Angela Birchett, Bianca Horn and Britt West.
I get a little difficulty because the way they elicit the cast was alphabetically and not necessarily by where they sit in the story.
Yes.
You'll excuse my confusion on some of this.
I thought they were really, really good.
Again, I enjoyed the performances.
This cast does, gets all of it out of it.
But unfortunately, for me, this script is, needs to be refined.
Yeah.
They've got to do some more so we can have more opportunities to really feel what Cele is going through.
And even the journey of people like Mr. or Shug, I wanted more emotional investment, but I couldn't get it because it went so fast.
And Sophia.
Sophia.
Sophia is almost specifically, I'd rather see.
Yeah, because my thing is like, I don't know the story, but at the end on the picnic thing, where he asked that question and was that, was that restaurant that they spend more time in?
That was even in the film.
That was in the book.
I'll be interested once you in faith see the film and then come back to your memories of this.
Yeah.
I'll be interested to see how you feel then.
Like, I'm not going to say it's going to improve what you saw, but I think it's going to give you some more depth.
You're totally.
Alright, so we're at the final analysis.
Yes.
We're going to do the final analysis on the show.
We're not going to give you a thumbs up, thumbs down.
We're not going to give you letter grades.
We're not going to give you numbers.
We're not going to give you a car.
And you a car.
And you a car was waiting for a wedding or chairs.
But what we're going to do is we're going to ask two questions.
Question number, what is, would you see this production again?
If the answers know that we're done here, but if the answer is yes, then the follow up question is since this is a stage production,
where are you willing to sit?
Because, of course, the closer to the stage, the higher the price.
Don, let's start with you, because I'm more interested in your thoughts here.
Would you see this again?
Yes.
Okay, so where you want to sit on it?
Because of this cast I saw in the singing.
I'm only given it the yes because of that reason.
A cheapest figure.
A cheapest price.
Let's sit up in the balcony and then...
A cheapest price available.
Chad, were you sitting in?
Absolutely.
Were you sitting?
I'd be perfectly happy sitting right where we sat.
Which for us was audience left, left of center, a row in front of the row that's on the aisle.
Right.
The back aisle.
Front orchestra is weird.
Yeah, basically.
I would see this again.
I'm going to split the difference.
I would say I would like to sit front balcony for this.
Just because...
I'm not sure I'd want to sit too close because again, the story is just too fast paced.
But I think the view from the balcony I think would be a great way to see everything as it all unfolds.
Right.
Dallas Summer Musicals.
It plays through Super Bowl Sunday.
February 4th.
It is called The Color Purple.
Were we in this whole thing?
Yes or not?
I think Paul Lightner made Dallas Summer Musicals?
Such a fan of those guys over there.
They let us come see productions.
And man, there's some cool stuff coming up.
Like, there's not something that they've got coming up.
This season or next season that hasn't made me go...
Ooh.
And some of its stuff that we've already seen that I'm ready to see again, which is even more awesome.
So thank you guys so much for...
We love that we partnered up with you and we're looking forward to doing it again soon.
That being said, let's do the plugs.
Visit our website.
We may have mentioned it once or twice.
www.theclubhousepodcast.com.
Find out everything you need to know and some stuff you don't.
You can follow us on social media.
Twitter is at ClubhouseShow.
Everything else is the Clubhouse podcast.
All three words in that order or you will wind up somewhere different.
You can follow me if you'd like.
Everything is a yes to that Rob Irvin that is spelled E-R-V-I-N.
I am that Chad in PG-690.
On everything.
You run Instagram with the same thing?
Oh, that's true, yes I am.
You actually have gotten your Instagram back up and running.
I was shocked when I saw your name come up on my Instagram today.
I am a fan, don't go twos at the beginning, 3os at the end.
Also, email me at Don at clubhousepodcast.com.
Email Don for information, how we can come do a live show for you.
We love doing live remote shows and hanging out with the Empire.
You can email me, questions, comments, concerns.
Tell me to go pound sand.
I am Rob at the clubhousepodcast.com.
I am Chad at the clubhousepodcast.com.
Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest because we're morally obligated to say that.
Jules Womack at the house waiting at the new apartment waiting on her husband to get home.
Oh, she's in the green room.
Nobody told me that.
I know Faith Ford is at the house because Don's been here longer than you've been here today.
Our normal show every Sunday night, 7 Eastern 4 Pacific is your one-stop shop for all things pop culture.
Just keep subscribing on your favorite podcast app and get all the cool stuff like this.
So until next time, for Don, for Chad and the Empire, I'm Rob.
Clubhouse is closed.
I just would like to see Pretty Palmer in a building.
I'm okay with that.