Danielle Brooks and Fantasia Taylor to lead The Color Purple musical film
Both women played their respective roles during the show's Broadway runs
Aux News The Color Purple
The new film adaptation of The Color Purple, based on the Tony-award winning musical, has found its Celie and Sofia. Fantasia Taylor, who won the third season of American Idol, will play Celie. Celie was portrayed by Whoopi Goldberg in the 1985 film adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Danielle Brooks will play Sofia, the role Oprah Winfrey played in the Steven Spielberg flick.
Winfrey herself announced the news on February 3 during ABC’s Soul of a Nation: Screen Queens Rising special. Winfrey said to Brooks, “I am here representing all things purple to tell you that you are our Sofia. I’m so happy to pass whatever baton from 35—almost 40—years ago to you. And I know you’re gonna kill it.”
Taylor and Brooks both played their respective roles in the musical during The Color Purple’s two Broadway runs. Taylor joined the original production of the musical in 2007, marking her Broadway debut. The musical ran on the Great White Way from 2005 to 2008. Brooks played Sofia in the 2015 revival and was nominated for a Tony Award for her work. That production, which won the Tony for Best Revival, closed in 2017.
Coincidentally, Jennifer Hudson, who Taylor beat in her quest on American Idol, had her Broadway debut during that revival, playing Shug Avery. In the new film, which Winfrey and Spielberg are producing, that role will be filled by Taraji P. Henson.
Cynthia Erivo played Celie in the 2015 revival, but she’s actually connected to another blockbuster movie musical–the Wicked movie.
The Color Purple will be directed by Samuel Bazawule, who helmed Beyoncé’s Black Is King film. Corey Hawkins (In The Heights) will play Harpo, singer H.E.R. will play Squeak, Colman Domingo (Zola) will play Mister, and Halle Bailey (The Little Mermaid) will play Celie’s sister Nettie. The film is currently slated for a 2023 release.
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7 Comments
I’ve never really been wowed by Cynthia Erivo on film/tv, but I have heard from multiple sources that she was incredible as Celie. Danielle Brooks is just as good in Peacemaker as she was in OITNB, looking forward to hearing her sing.
I saw Erivo in the revival twice and she gave, by far, one of the most nuanced, moving, and compelling performances I’ve ever seen in the theater. I haven’t seen much of her filmed work, but on the stage she’s an absolute force of nature.Danielle Brooks was also fantastic in the revival and nearly stole the show – she probably would have won the Tony if she hadn’t been up against a little known show called Hamilton that year. And while I’ve never seen Fantasia live the clips from the original production/her Tony’s performance give me more than enough faith the she will knock this out of the park.
My criticisms of Erivo in TV and film are just the standard criticisms of any successful stage actor or actress making the transition: everything feels stagey and phony. Some of the roles she has done have not helped with that, like Stephen King’s phony bologna black-woman-as-rain-man detective in The Outsider.
H.E.R. will Squeak?
I love musicals to pieces, and throughout this pandemic watching at least one a week has helped keep me sane, but I have to say that I’m not convinced that they work when covering a very serious issue. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but given that the novel features sexual, physical and verbal abuse of a child I’d be surprised if this was something which should be sung about.
I haven’t seen the stage musical version, and could very well be wrong about this too, but it’s going to have to get some very positive reviews for me to want to watch it…
The obc album was released in 2006. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’m going to use the (quite poor) excuse that I live in the UK, and so hadn’t even heard that there was a stage musical until now.