INTERVIEW: John Doyle’s revival of ‘Color Purple’ arrives in NJ
Photo: The Color Purple stars Adrianna Hicks as Celie. Photo courtesy of Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade / Provided by Richard Hillman PR with permission.
Tony winner John Doyle, the successful theater director behind the Broadway revivals of Sweeney Todd and Company, had one of his largest hits of all time with The Color Purple, a new production of the adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel and Steven Spielberg’s film. The show tells the story of Celie, a young African-American woman struggling with life, love, abuse and the relationship with her family.
The musical revival, featuring Doyle’s poignant direction, began life at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory before moving to Broadway. Tony acclaim came quickly enough, and it made a star out of Cynthia Erivo, who played Celie. Then the production hit the road for a North American tour. After completing that run of shows recently, The Color Purple has landed at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey, where it plays through Oct. 21 for the regional theater’s 80th anniversary.
Among the cast members at the Paper Mill are Adrianna Hicks as Celie, Carla R. Stewart as Shug Avery and Carrie Compere as Sofia.
Recently, Hollywood Soapbox spoke with Doyle, whose other credits include A Catered Affair and The Visit, about the production coming back to the tri-state area. Here’s what he had to say:
On the origins of the production …
“I was asked if I would do it maybe three years ago now in London, at the Chocolate Factory where I’d worked before. Personally, I was very unsure about doing that being a white British man. It seemed not necessarily the right person to be directing The Color Purple, but anyway I looked at the material. I looked at Alice Walker’s wonderful novel, and I thought, my gosh, this piece is timeless — sadly in some ways because not enough changes.”
On how the show transferred from London to Broadway …
“There was talk about bringing it back to Broadway, and, of course, it wasn’t really all that long since the original production. But I think what inspired bringing it back to Broadway was really this production is quite different to the original. That is not to in any sense say anything against Gary Griffin’s wonderful work the first time around, but this production is much less visually opulent, if you like. It’s much more stripped back. It’s very much about the audience’s connection with the actor. That’s what it really is more than anything, and it’s told in that way.”
On the success of the Broadway revival with Tony winner Cynthia Erivo, and taking it on tour …
“[The show] was very successful on Broadway as a revival, won the Tony, and then it did an international tour, which finished three weeks ago in Washington. Nearly a year filling houses all over America, and then an opportunity arose to take it to Paper Mill, and they asked me about it. And I said, ‘Yeah, I think that’s a great idea.’ It’s nice to bring it somewhat back nearer New York. That’s not the reason to do it, but the tour hadn’t come back into the neighborhood. So it sounded like a good idea.”
On whether the show has changed from its early days …
“It’s different than the Chocolate Facotyr. It’s bigger. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the Chocolate Factory, but it’s almost playing a musical in your front [living] oom. It’s quite small. It was scaled up [for Broadway]. It was made to look bigger and feel bigger, although it’s not any bigger in cast size or really in orchestra. But in terms of look, it’s bigger than it was in London, but it’s exactly the same as it was on Broadway. The tour is the same show as the Broadway production.”
On whether tweaking occurs while on tour …
“Do you tweak it along the way? Sure. You have different people playing different roles, so that inevitably means that it gets relooked at or you work it so that some pieces, the staging of movement or scenic work helps fit one actor more than it might have worked differently for somebody else. So, yeah, there’s always something happening, going on. This time taking it into Paper Mill it will be really lovely because on this tour the audience I thought … really was wonderful, [and] to see it with so many different audiences.
“Paper Mill audiences are obviously very used to going to the theater — the subscription-based theater with all those 80 years of work building up an audience — so it will be nice to take it into a theater that sees it as part of a body of work of that theater. I think that’s very exciting. … The other lovely thing is the Paper Mill house, the auditorium itself, is of a lovely scale, which as was the Broadway house. Bear in mind when you tour these shows in America, you could be playing in a 3,500-seater house, which makes the show have to on some level expand. It’ll be nice to work with the actors for a few days at Paper Mill to get it to really fit the house that it’s going to play in.”
On how he keeps all of his jobs, including artistic director of Classic Stage Company, running smoothly …
“I’m a professor at Princeton as well, so I have a lot of plates to spin. And I’m working on another piece that’s eventually, hopefully going to come to Broawday, but you know I’m fortunate to be a busy man in a profession where lots of people don’t get the opportunity to be busy as much as they should. So I’m very, very lucky. Therefore I don’t complain about it. There are times when you think, oh, I shouldn’t have taken that on, but it’s hard to say no. It’s hard to say no when you feel that the work needs to be seen. That’s important.
“Also, something like The Color Purple, it’s the same cast who did it on tour, so they know it intimately. My God, by now they probably know it better than me. The stage manager is the same stage manager as the tour. That makes a huge help because that means that I have a support, so my job really is to go in and really fine tune rather than panic.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Color Purple, directed by John Doyle, runs through Oct. 21 at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. Click here for more information and tickets.
