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ON THE RECORD: The Color Purple and "Harold Arlen and His Songs"
By Steven Suskin
05 Feb 2006
This week’s column discusses the Oprah Winfrey musical The Color Purple and the brilliant "Harold Arlen and His Songs," paired with a re-release of the original cast album of the Arlen-Mercer musical St. Louis Woman.
THE COLOR PURPLE [Angel EMI 0946 3 42954]
There is no rule that you’ve got to have Broadway experience to write a Broadway musical. Every composer was, at some point, a beginner; recent musicals like The Light in the Piazza, Hairspray and Avenue Q suggest that first-timer Broadway composers might be better off. Let it be said, though, that the composer and lyricists of those three musicals — along with the second-time author of the delectable Dirty Rotten Scoundrels — are all blessed with what you might call stage smarts. Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray, who came from pop land to join forces for The Color Purple, aren’t. Blessed with stage smarts, that is. Sure, you don’t gotta know the territory, as the first time author of The Music Man might have said. But it helps.
The Color Purple is one of those musicals that you sit there rooting for. At least, I sat there rooting for it, and despaired as various weaknesses were revealed. These songwriters can write songs, yes; they have written what seems like dozens of them. But none of them land, at least for me. I suppose they will grow on me with repeated listenings to the cast album, but musical theatre is a field where you can’t rely on repeated listenings. If the audience tunes out midway through the first act, it’s unlikely that they will buy another ticket. Or even a cast album.
The new musical, produced by Oprah Winfrey — as you might have heard — puts me in the mind of a sunny field filled with butterflies, purple and otherwise. Capturing the butterfly with your point-and-shoot takes patience; as soon as you zero in on one, he or she is up and off to another petal. That is how the songs of The Color Purple rush by, even the ones that strike you as interesting. You want to absorb them and savor them, but before they can register you’re off to the next. Part of the problem surely stems from the source material, which is so loaded with characters and events and necessary information that many accomplished theatre writers might well have thought twice about tackling it. This hampers not only the librettist, Marsha Norman, but the songwriters as well. The score has great variety, yes; but after one viewing and several listenings, none of the songs has yet managed to pierce my emotions. And that’s what needs to happen in the musical theatre, especially with a piece that is conceived to make us feel.
Even so, I find The Color Purple admirable and respectable and worthy, and I wish it a long life with legions of fans. The score is admirably performed, with LaChanze heading a raft of fine performers and musicians; the authors benefit from the expertise of the impressive musical staff (Jonathan Tunick, Linda Twine, Kevin Stites); and the recording itself is first rate. Did the score grab me in the theatre or on the CD? Not yet, I’m afraid. But I would certainly advise readers to see, and hear, for themselves. Continued...
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