The Color Purple at The Kennedy Center

The Color Purple

The Kennedy Center
2700 F Street, NW Washington

The Color Purple is the 2016 Tony Award winner for Best Musical Revival! Hailed as "a direct hit to the heart" (The Hollywood Reporter), this joyous American classic has conquered Broadway in an all-new "ravishingly reconceived production that is a glory to behold" (The New York Times), directed by Tony winner John Doyle. With a soul-raising, Grammy-winning score of jazz, gospel, ragtime, and blues, The Color Purple gives an exhilarating new spirit to this Pulitzer Prize-winning story.

Thru - Aug 26, 2018

Tuesdays: 8:00pm

Wednesdays: 8:00pm

Thursdays: 8:00pm

Fridays: 8:00pm

Saturdays: 2:00pm & 8:00pm

Sundays: 2:00pm & 8:00pm

Price: $69 - $149

Box Office: 202-467-4600

www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/event/TSTSF

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The Color Purple Reviews

Average Rating based on 7 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended

"...There was no wonder The Color Purple received a standing ovation. This great musical continues to amaze me. John Doyle has an astonishingly good winner on his hands."

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- William Powell

MetroWeekly - Recommended

"...Time hasn't dimmed the brilliance or urgency of Alice Walker's The Color Purple. The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel's tale of Miss Celie - raised to believe she will never amount to anything because she's poor, black, a woman, and ugly - now feels as of-the-moment as it might have felt when the novel originally was published in 1982, or when Steven Spielberg gave the story a glossy film treatment a few years later."

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- Andre Hereford

Talkin Broadway - Highly Recommended

"...This musical adaptation of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, and Steven Spielberg's 1986 film version, originally opened on Broadway in 2005, but John Doyle, credited with direction and musical staging, streamlined the action and removed the clutter in this revival, which opened on Broadway in 2016. Marsha Norman's book and the songs by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray serve as the basis for a production that uses artifice—often the actors face the audience rather than each other—to find a deeper truth."

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- Susan Berlin

MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended

"...This is a must-see musical with a message that will stay with audiences long after they’ve left the theatre. In a world still wracked by oppression, brutality, and discrimination, “The Color Purple” is a tribute to the innate dignity and worth of each person—whether the world recognizes it or not."

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- Jeannette Mulherin

Theatre Bloom - Highly Recommended

"...Hey, sister, whatcha gon’ do? Goin’ down by the Potomac River, gonna see The Color Purple with you. In a striking reimagination of the iconic novel turned film turned stage musical, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts proudly presents The Color Purple, a Menier Chocolate Factory Production. Directed and Conceptualized by John Doyle, with Musical Direction and Pit Conduction by Darryl Archibald, this stunning story is reinvented with simplicity at its aesthetic core, allowing the harrowing and emotional truths of the tale rise to the surface of the performance."

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- Amanda Gunther

DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended

"...Overall, the message of appreciating the beauty that surrounds us and embracing love at all costs is still at the heart of The Color Purple, made even more touching by the superb score by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray. The production stays in town through August 26. Experience it for yourself if you can."

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- Jeffrey Walker

BroadwayWorld - Somewhat Recommended

"...Doyle's 'less is more approach' to musical theater works in some instances - for example, the 2005 Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd - but I am not so sure it brings out the best of this musical work. Here, it just exposes many of the flaws I didn't notice in the original Broadway production and again on tour. Still, the cast succeeds in nearly every way and deserves every praise."

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- Jennifer Perry