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The rough edges of Stephen Spielberg’s 1985 adaptation have been softened but the evocative energy of this movie-musical’s three female leads is magicalThis heartfelt movie-musical of The Color Purple sugars the pill and softens the blow, planing down the original’s barbed and knotty surfaces, taking away some of the shock of violence and tragedy and tilting the experience more towards female solidarity and triumph over adversity. But that’s perhaps part of a creatively emollient process that began in 1985 with Steven Spielberg’s powerful if bowdlerised screen version of the Alice Walker novel; the film was then transformed into a hit Broadway musical in 2005, which is now the template for this new adaptation.There’s certainly an absolute powerhouse trio of female leads here, supercharging the action with their fierce charisma. Fantasia Barrino plays courageous abuse survivor Celie (the part originally played by Whoopi Goldberg); Taraji P Henson plays the singing star Shug Avery (Margaret Avery in 1985) and Danielle Brooks barnstorms the role of Sofia (in which Oprah Winfrey once made her film debut). It is written for the screen by Marcus Gardley and directed by musician and film-maker Blitz Bazawule, drawing on the novel and the Spielberg film and using Brenda Russell’s stirring musical numbers from the stage show which give the drama an even, consistent pattern of sugar-rush moments and choreographed spectacle. There are some very raunchy sequences in a darkened juke-joint as well as new inventions and redemptive character arcs. Spielberg, Winfrey and original composer Quincy Jones produce, and Goldberg has a nicely judged cameo. Continue reading...