Leicester’s Curve and Birmingham Hippodrome theatres will co-produce a new production of Broadway musical The Color Purple in Summer 2019.
Genesis Future Directors Award winner Tinuke Craig will direct the production which is the first to be created outside of London.
Speaking about the co-production, Curve’s Chief Executive Chris Stafford and Artistic Director Nikolai Foster said:
“The Color Purple celebrates remarkable women, telling incredible stories. From its Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, her courageous creation in heroine Celie to Oprah Winfrey – who had the vision to make the story into a smash-hit Broadway musical. And we are thrilled to introduce our equally astonishing director Tinuke Craig and welcome her to Curve.
Fiona Allan, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the Birmingham Hippodrome said:
“This is the very first time that Birmingham Hippodrome has actively co-produced a main stage musical, and we could not have better partners than Chris Stafford and Nikolai Foster at Curve theatre, and director Tinuke Craig.
Told over the course of 40 years, The Color Purple follows courageous heroine Celie, as she journeys through joy, despair, anguish and hope in her own personal awakening to discover her unique voice in the world.
An unforgettable story with a profoundly evocative score that draws from jazz, ragtime, gospel and blues, the musical is set in the racially divided south of America.
Tinuke’s recent credits include random/generations, a double bill of plays by debbie tucker green at Chichester Festival Theatre and I Call my Brothers by Jonas Hassen Khemiri at the Gate Theatre.
The production will run from 28 June 2019 until 13 July 2019 at Curve, Leicester, and then from 16 July 2019 until 20 July 2019 at Birmingham Hippodrome.
Further details can be found online on www.curveonline.co.uk or www.birminghamhippodrome.com.
