Passionate Voices Propel Brevo Theatre’s The Color Purple

By Bill Hirschman

In these difficult times, Brévo Theatre’s glory-filled production of “The Color Purple” digs inside your spirit and releases elation at the prospect of hope.

Voices propelled by passion that almost push you back in your seat deliver as solid a celebration as this musical is capable of.

True, a few asterisks exist, but this relatively young company unquestionably succeeds in its most ambitious undertaking in scope and logistics, especially since one of its leads, Toddra Brunson, unexpectedly died. The company only had a week to rehearse with her replacement.

The artists’ enthusiasm on display through July 3 at Pompano Beach Cultural Center is infectious as heroine Celie wrestles with the existence of God and searches for her sense of self-worth.

The 2005 musical is adapted, deeply abridged and somewhat softened from both Alice Walker’s 1982 novel and the 1985 film. But its blend of jazz, ragtime, gospel, blues and African music that engulfs the audience exhilarates.

Praise is certainly due the verve of director Bryan Keyth-Wilson, the precise guidance of musical direction by Beau King and the live eight-piece band under the baton of Damian Sanchez.

But what you’ll take home with you is the pure sound of three actresses with expressive phrasing and powerful belts that are forces of nature.

As Celie, the rural Georgia teenager who evolves before our eyes and ears through a grueling marriage, Brooklynn Miller is simply stunning. The Miami educator was hired after being heard singing karaoke, but her vocal ability is equaled by her acting in which her face registers anticipation, love, fear, regret. She captures us even much of the time when Celie is protectively withdrawn and is emerging slowly into her self-empowerment.

As Celie’s husband’s dancehall mistress Shug Avery, Aria Hope pulls off a minor miracle being called in from Houston a week before opening to parachute into a role she has played before. Visually lovely, Hope’s Shug is a blistering, glowing energy working at some incalculable horsepower.

As the defiant self-assured Sofia, Alabama-based Ashley Nicole Portis is simply a mountainous lifeforce whose thrilling numbers drive some of the highlights of evening.

No less effective are Cassidy Joseph as sister Nettie, Jamaine Jae Benjamin Jr. as Harpo and Michael L. Wallace who believably inhabits the cruel misogynist Albert “Mister” and then makes his latter-day conversion credible.

Note that the entire ensemble, most of whom also play specific characters, are commendable, especially when their group numbers push out the walls of the auditorium in the gospel-tinged numbers. As the material pointedly hinges on the difference between physical beauty and inner beauty, the cast and the production encompasses, even welcomes a wide range of body types.

No less memorable is the supple, smooth, slinky, swirling, spinning dancing with  arms and legs airborne fluidly choreographed by the company’s producing artistic director Terrence “TM” Pride.

So honor LaShondra Hood, Krystin Blaire and Samara Baptist as the superbly precise church ladies who entertain during scene changes; John Rolle, Elijah Isaiah, Bobby Cheatham, Sarah Romeo as Squeak, Melvin Dawson III, Ajia Auriel Northern, Cam Davis, Leah Williams, A’Shanti Miller, Jeffrey Slater and Aundre Eliacin whose dance moves are to borrow an appropriate cliché poetry in motion.

The talent displayed here – much of it local who don’t audition often for other theaters – is worth a visit from artistic directors down here seeking diverse casting possibilities.

One of the asterisks is that when most of the actors are projecting rage or unbridled passion at full volume blast and speed, some words get lost in a blur. Which is a tragedy when these lyrics and dialogue are so evocative themselves.

The sound by expert David Hart and the lighting by Lauren Kennedi Ozie Dixon are both first-rate but there were a few missed cues opening matinee, and the actors need to learn to step into the lights. Sometimes we could see their bodies but not their heads.

Harlan Penn designed an evocative environment including a thrust into the black box theater that takes up some seating space but gives the company an acre to dance across. We’ve never seen this venue used so well visually.

Pride’s costuming captured the rural working clothes, then later delivers a parade of African celebratory garb. Well, you might question Celie’s electric purple outfit when she opens her own store.

The arc tracks Celie’s rejection of God, then finding the bestowed beauty and finding the love she has always sought – inside herself. It’s a comforting message that fills troubled hearts.

We have to say, once again, we are worried that our credibility may be in danger because this season consistently and repeatedly has produced work worthy of such recognition. But trust us, Brévo’s The Color Purple deserves to be on that honor roll.

Note: The opening matinee Sunday was sold out.

We profiled Brévo Theatre last week in an article at https://tinyurl.com/4v2udasy.

The Color Purple from Brévo Theatre plays through July 3 at the Pompano Beach Cultural Center, 50 W. Atlantic Blvd. 3 p.m. Saturday June 27 and Sunday, June 28; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday June 24, Thursday June 25, Friday June 26, Saturday, June 27, Thursday July 2 and Friday July 3. Running time 2 ¼ hours not counting an intermission of unpredictably variable length as people buys drinks and snacks. General admission is $55. VIP tickets are $70 and include one complimentary drink, cabaret table seating and a complimentary mason jar. Tickets at Brevotheatre.org.