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The national touring company of the big musical based on Alice Walker’s noted feminist manifesto finally arrives in Nashville. Thanks to Oprah Winfrey’s original $10 million investment, the play had a healthy New York run and has been traveling now for nearly three years, its cast sometimes including American Idol’s Fantasia Barrino. She starred as the character Celie on Broadway, a role she will reprise in the forthcoming film adaptation. The show has been re-cast, however, for this newer non-Equity version, which perhaps only testifies really to the wealth of untapped talent all over the country. Dayna Jarae Dantzler will be Music City’s Celie, supported by other relatively little-knowns such as Pam Trotter, Taprena Augustine and Edward C. Smith. Acclaimed playwright Marsha Norman adapted Walker’s novel, and the pop-, R&B- and gospel-influenced score is the handiwork of three collaborators, Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray. (If you’re not moved to tears, you will certainly feel empowered.)
March 23-28, 2010
March 23-28, 2010
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