Harpo Who Dis Woman? My Interview With “Squeak” From the National Tour of The Color Purple

I can’t exactly remember when I first saw the movie The Color Purple; maybe I was 10 or 11 years old, but I’ll never forget the impact it had on my life. The Color Purple is my favorite movie, it’s based on an award-winning novel by Alice Walker. I have not read the book, but it’s on my to-do-list. Seeing The Color Purple, the Musical, was also on my to-do-list, but this week I scratched it off; well sort of. The National Tour of the revival of the Broadway version of the Color Purple is currently traveling and that is what I saw.

Adrianna Hicks(Celie) Photo by Matthew Murphy, 2017

An emotional, but very scaled down production. After seeing the show, I learned that many productions “revive” a show to a scaled down version to cut back on money, and of course to bring the show on tour – let’s face it everyone can’t get to New York City to see shows, so with national tours – Broadway comes to you. The cast of the National tour is amazing! Adrianna Hicks (Celie) is beyond wonderful, when she sang “I’m Here,” I cried. The emotional tone and texture of her voice hit me hard – I felt the emotions of a woman who was finally, understanding herself and her purpose; it was personal for me.

One of my favorite character’s in the movie is Squeak played by Rae Dawn Chong, and on the National Tour, Squeak is played by Erica Durham. I like the way Squeak evolves. She starts out as Harpo’s “side chick” and then by the end of the movie, she decides to risk it all and go to Memphis with Shug an Ms. Celie, because she wants to be a singer! Oh, sometimes I wish I had the conjones to just do what the hell I want, and think about the consequences later. I had the awesome opportunity to interview Erica, about the show and about the changing face of Broadway.

Check out the interview below. And go see the National Tour of the Color Purple the Musical – on tour now!