The Tony Winner comes to Paper Mill!

The Tony-winning The Color Purple arrives fresh from Broadway for a local production by the Paper Mill Playhouse. This iconic musical follows Celie, a young woman living in early 1900s America and is based on the book by Alice Walker. Both heart-warming and heart-wrenching, you'll find yourself moved by her tale as much as you are by the show's incredible music.

The 2015 Broadway production won two Tony Awards including the coveted Best Revival of a Musical , after being nominated for four awards. It went on to run for just over a year, closing in early 2017, and earned Broadway newcomer Cynthia Erivo her first ever Tony Award for her leading role of Cecile. The musical also picked up the Grammy Award for Best Cast Album.

WHAT IS THE COLOR PURPLE ABOUT?

Set in the early 1900s, The Color Purple centers on the life of Celie, a young black girl living in rural Georgia. Her father Alphonso is abusive, and has fathered two children by his daughter, both of whom he has 'got rid of'. Celie is then married off to the unloving 'Mister', a local farmer, who treats her as nothing more than a household slave. In the midst of all this hardship comes Shug Avery, a local lounge singer with none too saintly a reputation, who befriends Celie and gives her the belief to battle against the odds, and change her life for the better.

Did you know?

The Color Purple is one the most critically acclaimed book-to-film-to-stage adaptations of recent times! The 1982 novel won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction as well as the National Book Award, the 1985 film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, and the first Broadway production (which ran at the Broadway Theatre from 2005 to 2008) was nominated for 11 Tony Awards, of which it won 'Best Actress'.