‘The Color Purple’ is Powerful, Emotional, and Well Worth Seeing

By Sandi Masori 

CARLSBAD, California — I think that The Color Purple, now playing at New Village Arts theater in Carlsbad may just be the best play I have seen there yet. The cast is uber talented and cohesive, and wow! what powerful voices.

For those like me who never saw either the 1985 movie drama starring Whoopie Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, or the 2023 version musical starring Fantasia and Halle Bailey, it’s the story of a Black community in Georgia in the early 1900s. The main character Celie (Nio Russell) is abused by her stepdad from an early age and gives birth to two of his children before she’s 15. Both kids are ripped from her arms and given away without her say. Then she’s married off to an abusive man who doesn’t love her. Really, it’s the story of Celie coming into her own and going from being a meek abused girl/ woman into becoming a powerful woman and entrepreneur through the bonds of sisterhood.

Throughout the play, especially the first act, Celie is mad at God, and doesn’t understand why He keeps turning his back on her and letting her be abused and suffer so.  This made me think about a Jewish concept that I’ve been struggling with lately, gam zeh l’tovah– that is the idea that no matter what is happening, it’s actually for the good.  Especially now, with what happened on 10/7 and all the subsequent “protests.” I’ve really been wondering where is G-d and how can people say that even this is for the best?

Watching Celie get abused repeatedly as she just accepts her lot in life, while yelling at G-d for abandoning her, really kept bringing me back to this ideological struggle.

Back to the play though, the cast is incredible.  Russell is perfectly cast as Celie. Hadiyyah Noelle’s Shug is sexy and compelling, and Eboni Muse delivers a powerful performance as Sofia.  The Greek chorus ensemble also deserves a shoutout for the way they keep things moving along with their energy, incredible voices, and humor.

I really appreciate the way the show is cast- with talent trumping body size. The cast is made up of incredibly talented actors who come in a variety of sizes and shapes. It’s not the skinniest actor playing the sexy woman, it’s the actor that was best for the part.  Similarly for the men, they are of all different statures and were not cast according to height, but talent.

This is something that I, as a “big girl,” have always admired about the Black community; it sees beauty and sexiness in all different shapes. I wish that more shows would follow this lead and cast with more body image blindness. How great would it be to see a voluptuous Elle Woods (Legally Blonde) or a curvy Vivian (Pretty Woman).  But I digress, back to The Color Purple.

The show takes you through the entire emotional range. You will be angry, you will be sad, you will be joyous. Director Kandace Crystal is very effective at bringing out all the emotional stops. I also appreciated that while there’s a lot of violence, it’s done in a very theatrical way, so that while you clearly understand what happened, you don’t feel attacked or traumatized by it.

The sets are simple, using open frames that move around the stage and boxes.  It’s really the actors and costumes that move us from place to place.   The music is recorded, not performed live.

All in all, I think this is a show worth watching.  It runs through July 20.

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Sandi Masori is a theater and restaurant reviewer for San Diego Jewish World.