The Color Purple was originally workshopped by the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, in mid-2004 following Scott Sanders' optioning the work from Alice Walker in 1999 and auditioning various creative team members.
The September 9, 2004, world premiere of the musical was produced by the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta by special arrangement with Creative Battery and Scott Sanders Productions.
For the Atlanta run, LaChanze starred as Celie, Felicia P. Fields as Sofia, Saycon Sengbloh as Nettie, Adriane Lenox as Shug and Kingsley Leggs as Mister.
Gary Griffin staged the work, with scenic design by John Lee Beatty, lighting by Brian MacDevitt, costumes by Paul Tazewell and sound by Jon Weston.
[3] The original Broadway production starred LaChanze as Celie, Brandon Victor Dixon as Harpo, Felicia P. Fields as Sofia, Renée Elise Goldsberry as Nettie, Kingsley Leggs as Mister, Krisha Marcano as Squeak, and Elisabeth Withers-Mendes as Shug Avery.
The company includes LaToya London as Nettie, Michelle Williams as Shug Avery, Felicia P. Fields as Sofia, and Jeannette Bayardelle as Celie, Stephanie St. James as Squeak.
[5] In all, the show produced respectable business results bringing in about $1 million per week for the first half of the engagement, but less during the summer months when the ticket prices were reduced to $39.50 to keep the theater full.
[13] The 2009–2010 tour length started at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D.C. on August 9, 2009, and ended at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
The direction was by Griffin with John Lee Beatty as set designer, Paul Tazewell as costumer and Jon Weston as sound director.
The official cast roles were made by Fantasia Barrino as Celie, Angela Robinson as Shug Avery, Felicia P. Fields as Sofia and LaToya London as Nettie.
[14] A second national tour with a new non-Equity cast opened on March 12, 2010, at the Lyric Opera House and visited numerous US cities, making several return engagements.
[15][16] In August 2010, Oprah Winfrey announced the traveling company of The Color Purple would be raising funds for the relief organization SBP along with the novel's author, Alice Walker.
[17] Due to an overwhelming demand, the tour returned to New Orleans where it played a 5-show limited-engagement at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts from February 11–13, 2011.
[18] A third national tour with a non-Equity cast opened January 17, 2012, at the Francis Marion University PAC, in Florence, South Carolina, with previews in New Haven, CT at the Schubert Theater.
[19] On January 9, 2015, producers Scott Sanders, Roy Furman, and Oprah Winfrey announced that the Menier Chocolate Factory production would be mounted on Broadway.
The production was directed by Tinuke Craig with T'Shan Williams as Celie, Karen Mavundukure as Sofia, Joanna Francis as Shug and Ako Mitchell as Mister.
[29] The Brazilian production of the musical opened in Rio de Janeiro from September 6 to November 3, 2019,[30] before transferring to São Paulo from December 6, 2019, to February 16, 2020.
[32] On a Sunday morning in 1909, fourteen-year-old Celie – who has had one child by her father Alphonso and is now pregnant with her second – plays a clapping game with her younger sister Nettie ("Huckleberry Pie").
While attending services with the other members of their rural Georgia community, Celie goes into labor and is dragged out of the church as the congregation quietly looks on ("Mysterious Ways").
Harpo decides to turn his house into a juke joint and engages in an affair with a waitress named Squeak, who moves in with him ("Brown Betty").
While reading the letters that Mister has hidden from her, Celie learns Nettie is in Africa and is living with the missionary family that adopted her children ("African Homeland").
After learning the extent of Celie's anger towards God, Shug invites her to come back to Memphis with her so they can enjoy the simple joys of life ("The Color Purple").
Theatre critic Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote, "Celie had morphed into a heroine of the kind of inspirational women's fiction found in airport bookstores, written by Barbara Taylor Bradford and Danielle Steel.
Brantley also criticized its length writing, "Watching this beat-the-clock production summons the frustrations of riding through a picturesque stretch of country in a supertrain like the TGV."
[36] David Rooney of Variety wrote, "Neither Steven Spielberg’s prettified, Amblin-ized 1985 movie nor this big, messy patchwork of a musical entirely do justice to the story of poor black women from the Deep South in the first half of the 20th century."
Ben Brantley of The New York Times reviewed the revival referencing the 2005 production describing it as "a big, gaudy, lumbering creature that felt oversold and overdressed".
[39] Marilyn Stasio of Variety also praised the production describing Erivo as "haunting", Jennifer Hudson as "radiant" and wrote that Danielle Brooks "shakes the house".
[40] In Alexis Soloski's The Guardian three star review praised Erivo's performance describing her as "a remarkable actor and singer who can accomplish a tremendous amount while seeming to do very little.
Soloski however criticized the production calling "this version...streamlined and stripped down" but added "the fine performances, particularly Erivo as the downtrodden Celie, brighten it up.
On February 3, 2022, the rest of the cast was announced, with Fantasia starring as Celie, Danielle Brooks reprising her role as Sofia, Colman Domingo as Mister, and Halle Bailey as Nettie.