When I was in Chicago this past weekend for my workshop (Darn it, both Wicked and 700 Sundays were completely sold out!) I got a copy of an article (BusinessWeek, November 21, 2005) about the journey of The Color Purple, from idea to Broadway.

Interesting story, and of course, as with most difficult journeys, one person has championed the project.

Scott Sanders (whose resume includes being president of Mandalay Television, and executive producer at Radio City Music Hall for 15 years), the lead producer, has been pushing that penny up the hill now for four years. When he first asked Alice Walker for permission, she was famously hesitant, but finally gave her consent after much whining and dining.

He has intimately involved himself in both the creative and business demands of turning The Color Purple into a musical. "His ideas are informed by two desires, he says: to fulfill his promise to Walker to maintain the integrity of the characters...and to entertain as broad an audience as possible."

The initial $2 million funding Sanders raised got the show through its month-long trial run in Atlanta last year. "At that point, a reviewer in Variety said the musical was missing "a sence of the sweeping poetic scale demanded by both the material and the form". Interesting.

Apparently, the show continues to evolve, and even as recently as a November performance that Oprah saw (she came into the project late) it was felt that the songs for Celie, the main character, are not as strong as those for the supoporting cast. Of course this kind of constant evolution and fine tuning is not always a sign of trouble. It can also be a sign of a healthy creative process.

Sanders is intimately involved with the creative issues, but the article goes on to say, "Producers don't always involve themselves in the intricacies of the lyrics, the script, the set, the costumes. When they do, they can easily disrupt the artistic process." Interesting.

Apparently, there is more non-Broadway money in the show than usual. The traditional investors were concerned that white audiences won't go to a show with an all-black cast and that African Americans usually don't go to Broadway. A number of big names that are involved are Oprah, Quincy Jones, Roy Furman, Bob and Harvey Weinstein and Gary Winnick.

The Color Purple will open December 1, with advance ticket sales "of about 5 million, a relatively modest amount." Furman and Sanders have arranged for the Empire State Building to be lit in purple on opening night. Interesting.

Break a leg guys!

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