Mark G.Meadows: Last News

The royally enjoyable cast of Signature Theatre’s The Color Purple (★★★★★) forges a chain of love with no weak links in Timothy Douglas’ knockout staging of the musical based on Alice Walker’s novel and the acclaimed 1985 motion picture.The show marks a milestone for Signature, which, according to artistic director Matthew Gardiner, had developed plans a decade ago for a take on the musical, fresh off a two-year Broadway run of the original Tony-winning production.But those plans were scuttled due to John Doyle’s 2015 Broadway revival starring powerhouses Cynthia Erivo, Jennifer Hudson, and Danielle Brooks.Eventually that production made its way to D.C. in the modified form of a Broadway touring company which, frankly, left a lot of the meat of this turbulent, decades-spanning drama still on the bone.

The Signature Show includes stunning performances, captured from their homes, by vocalist Felicia Boswell accompanied by pianist Mark G. Meadows — a roof-shattering powerhouse riff on “Play The Music for Me” from Jelly’s Last Jam — and vocalist Nora Palka accompanied by percussionist Nathan Ellman-Bell in a timely, moving rendition of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin.”And then there’s Barrett Wilbert Weed’s enthralling take of “Colored Lights” from The Rink, offered as a coda to an interview with the legendary Chita Rivera led by Matthew Gardiner, Signature’s Associate Artistic Director.With the two conversing over video from their respective homes, Gardiner asks Rivera to reminisce about everything from her upbringing in D.C.