The run closed February 24, 2008
- Opened
- December 1, 2005
- Closed
- February 24, 2008
- Performances
- 910
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- Broadway Theatre
Of the 395 productions we hold that opened in the 2000s and record a performance count, this is the 21st longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Other stagings of The Color Purple 2 more that season
| 2013 | Transfer Transfer | |
| 2015 | Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre Revival · John Doyle | 493 perf. |
Who was in it39 named
Latrisa A Coleman
Carol Dennis
Anika Ellis
Zipporah G Gatling
Charles Gray
Francesca Harper
Grasan Kingsberry
J C Montgomery
Lou Myers
Angela Robinson
Bahiyah Sayyed Gaines
Leon G Thomas Iii
Maia Nkenge Wilson
Virginia Ann Woodruff
Charlotte Crossley
Todrick D Hall
Rosena M Hill
Chauncey Jenkins
Chaka Khan
Kenya Unique Massey
Jenny Mollet
Levensky Smith
Daniel J Watts
Alton Fitzgerald White
Be Be Winans
14 of these 39 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 25 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name — so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.
Characters6 roles recorded
LaChanze Celie
Elisabeth Withers Shug Avery
Felicia P. Fields Sofia
Kingsley Leggs Mister/Albert
Brandon Victor Dixon Harpo
Renée Elise Goldsberry Nettie
Only 512 of 13,459 productions carry role names, and these came out of a wiki table — the names arrived with the table's own cell markup on them and have been stripped back. They are not linked to person records because the identifiers in that table do not resolve to ours.
Creative team
- Director
- Gary Griffin
- Choreographer
- Donald Byrd
- Producer
- Oprah Winfrey , Scott Sanders, Roy Furman, Quincy Jones, Creative Battery, Anna Fantaci, Cheryl Lachowicz, Independent Presenters Network, David Lowy, Stephanie McClelland, Gary Winnick, Jan Kallish, Nederlander Presentations, Inc., Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Andrew Asnes, Adam Zotovich, Todd Johnson
A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.
Tony Awards 0 from 1 nomination
| Best Musical | Nominated |
Around this production
The Color Purple, based on the novel and film of the same name, opens at the Broadway Theater. Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical Volume 22 William A Everett Paul R, p. 34
- The Color Purple takes its cue from Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a poor black woman in rural Georgia, Celie (LaChanze), who overcomes a past of abuse and unendurable hardships to find her own identity and love. Showtime A History of the Broadway Musical Theatre Larry Stempel, p. 709
- Baum's classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: See Cote. The musical Wicked actually draws directly on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple and Frank Wedekind's drama Frühlings Erwachen (Spring Awakening) provide the bases for the mus… Showtime A History of the Broadway Musical Theatre Larry Stempel, p. 783
- Doyle staged a revival of The Color Purple at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory in 2013; he also served as scenic designer. He received his third Tony Award nomination when the non-actor-musician production, starring Cynthia Erivo, Danielle Brooks, and Jennifer Hudson, transferred to Broadway in November 2015. The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia Rick Pender Rowman Littlefield Publishing Lanh, p. 198
- Best Visiting Production: The Color Purple (National Tour at Citi PAC) Small Theatre Theatre World 2009 2010 Season V 66 Willis, p. 443
- The Color Purple 910 performances Opened December 1, 2005 Closed February 24, 2008 Theatre World 2009 2010 Season V 66 Willis, p. 457
Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.
What this page does not know
- No photograph of this staging. 48 of 13,459 productions hold one.
- No recording is held for The Color Purple at all.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.