Adapted for the stage

CONTENT WARNING: Brief mention of sexual violence

Musicals.

They’re bright, whimsical, a little silly (if we’re being honest), and the majority of songs are earworms which will burrow into your brain long after hearing them. I must admit, I used to dabble in musicals a little, and even now I find myself going back to them from time to time. I’ve even been in a few, though the less said about them the better. I am a former musical veteran, so you know I know my shit, mostly. I know that even the most serious musical is a tad silly at times. Something like Les Mis, for as emotional and touching as it is, is still a show where people speak-sing their thoughts on a giant round spinny thing for three hours. No shade to musicals or people who like them, but I think we can all agree there is a touch of silliness to even the most serious story when it’s chucked on stage for people to sing and dance to.

So, imagine my surprise when I found out The Colour Purple of all things had a musical adaptation, and a very beloved one at that.

For those who don’t know, The Colour Purple is a novel by Alice Walker about a fourteen-year-old girl who, after being sexually assaulted by a family member, narrates her story through letters written to God. I must admit, I have not read the story nor seen the film. I only have a base understanding of the themes and narrative, which is why I think my surprise upon finding out there is a musical adaptation was so understandable. I want to clarify; I am in no way judging the musical or saying it’s bad or should not have been made. I have never seen it or engaged in the source material; I am ignorant to it outside of the themes I knew it touched on.

To remedy this, I will be listening to some of the musical, reading the lyrics, seeing how a rather heavy narrative has been adapted for a musical setting.

My initial impression of the music, through the song ‘Opening/Mysterious Ways’, with this song at least, is that it’s jazzy, vibrant, and soulful. Touches of gospel choir inspiration can be heard as well. From a purely musical standpoint, the singing and emotion in the cast’s voices are outstanding. From a storytelling position, the song manages to set up questions for those who don’t know the source material and confirm for those who do that this story is the one they know. For example, a line like the following -

I heard about that poor child Celie Already ruined two times! She only fourteen years old

Who da daddy? Who da daddy?... Nobody know

It does not tell you the circumstances of Celie’s pregnancy, but it also shows that the narrative has not been toned down for the stage. Compromises have not been made when adapting this piece.

I can’t do a song-by-song breakdown here, as much fun as that would be, but each piece tells the narrative in a tasteful, yet very entertaining and expressive manner. Musicals can sometimes fall into the trap of characters saying their emotions outright, instead of letting it show in what they’re saying. While there’s only so much context that can be obtained from listening instead of viewing, The Colour Purple is not falling into this trap. Themes like incest and abuse which are hard to tackle at the best of times are done in a tasteful manner here. Having this story told through a musical setting keeps the tone lighter than a novel or movie could and entertaining in a way that a standard drama film could never be. If anything, the musical nature of the story makes these themes easier to handle. By not outright saying or showing the really awful stuff, alluding to and hinting at it as opposed to shoving it down the audiences’ throats, it makes the tough subject matter easier to consume while also giving the audience more room for interpretation.

From everything I’ve heard, The Colour Purple takes everything from the book and puts it on stage completely uncompromised from its source material, the way it should have been done.

I take back all my surprise at seeing there was a musical adaptation of this story. After thinking about it a lot, it’s really not surprising at all that a story of this nature has been adapted for this kind of media, however. While not in the same vein of heavy, a musical like Hamilton delves into real historical events, using the drama and violence of the American revolution as spectacle. Even in the realm of fiction we’ve seen these darker narratives appear –Heathers was literally about murders leading up to an attempted (and failed) bombing of a school. Les Mis is another historical piece about a very real failed revolution where many people lost their lives. Miss Saigon, while once again fictional, uses the final days of the Vietnam war as its background, and has a tragic ending which I won’t talk about here. Moving away from violence, Kinky Boots is a vibrant LGBTQIA+ musical about inclusivity, loving yourself, and accepting others, using topics along the lines of neglect for being queer and homophobia effectively to tell its story. These musicals don’t tone down the heavier subject matter. As bright and colourful as the musical stereotype is, they’re a genuine place for heartfelt, meaningful conversation and deep narrative. It honestly makes a lot of sense, storytelling through song and dance has been a part of human culture from the day we arrived on this planet and, blinking, stepped into the sun. There are no reasons to be opposed to the adaptation of these narratives into a musical counterpoint. When looking at the way humans have told stories over the centuries, it makes sense that we would adapt these stories to music. It has to be done tastefully, of course, but that’s literally the same with everything. You wouldn’t turn such sensitive material into a film only to throw ridiculous quips and gags in, and it’s the same with stage adaptations.

Singing and dancing might seem like a strange medium for these heavier pieces of storytelling, but if you think about it, we’ve been telling darker stories that way for years. Before film, and before the more obtainable nature of books, the stage was the only way we could tell our stories. Even before the stage was a stage, humankind has been telling its history in a theatrical manner for decades. And if we’re going to tell these stories like this, as long as it’s tasteful while not compromising the original stories narratives and themes, what’s the issue?