The Color Purple - Leicester Curve / U.K. Tour

Would love to see this closer to London- even as a little filler. Looks unlikely I'll be able to make it in Brum!

It's press night tonight. Some production shots have been released for anyone interested

A little tip for anyone from London and SE England looking for cheap rail travel to Birmingham for matinees of Color Purple or any shows there. Doesn't work for evening shows unfortunately.

I always use Chiltern Trains from Marylebone and avoid Virgin Trains and Euston. I can get from Kent to Birmingham and back that way on advance tickets for around £16 with my railcard (£25 no railcard) from my local station

As a specific example, on Wednesday 17 July two advance singles at appropriate times for the 2 pm matinee . London Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street 11.10 arrive 12.56 currently costs £4.25 with railcard or £6.40 no railcard. Birmingham Moor Street to London Marylebone at 17.55 is £4.60 (£7.00) or £4.25 (£6.40) at 18.15.

The Hippodrome Theatre is only about 5 minutes walk away from Moor Street station.

To get the lowest fares you may need to specify travelling via Solihull as that ensures the Chiltern route is offered.

I always use Chiltern between Birmingham and London. It still surprises me how few people even know the line exists. I prefer the more flexible super off peak return which still works out at good value as £31 or £36 for the day return inc a 6 zone travelcard. You need to put via Wycombe.

I have no idea what the reviews have been like both in the professional sense and here on TheatreBoard because i've been avoiding them. But for me, this was fantastic. I wasn't left disappointed by this and it was one i was really looking forward to, so thank goodness for that. The design is really interesting and innovate and visually stunning, it only used i;d say half, if that, the depth of the stage, so it keeps it intimate which i think plays well into this show. The cast were stunning, especially the voices. The show is just beautiful to listen to. Everyone is going to compare T'shan to Cynthia and if you are going to ask me if vocally she was up there with her, i'd say no, but she still was, for me, fantastic. They all were. I especially liked the girl playing Nettie, she, for my money had just about the strongest vocals out of a group of amazing voices and i;d be really interested to see her play Celie actually. I have to say i couldn't have seen Seyi in the role, i said at the time of her casting she reads far too young and after seeing the show i really think T'shan was a better choice. I don't usually cry at shows but i have to say at the end there when Celie is reunited with certain people i was like a flood!

I was disappointed to see some empty seats today and all i;d say is that if you are reading this and trying to decide if to go, please please do. I think the show, the cast, crew, of which this is the young directors first big musical btw and the theatres really deserve our support and coin from attending!

I was also there this afternoon.

The set for the Tony Award winning Menier production was actually smaller, but fitted that venue perfectly, this one seemed like a size 5 for a size 9 foot. The set didn’t seemed to work and the projections seemed to be on the pallid side.

However this is a redemptive musical, it has a brilliant book by Alice Walker and Marsha Norma. This is no feel good musical, the Lion King this ain’t! The first half is dreadful and I mean that very respectfully, it has everything I despise in human nature: incest, rape, control, brutality, servitude, domestic violence and even arranged marriage to-boot. But that first half, set up the second half as the redemptive part kicks in, where Celia grows in stature and becomes her own woman .The title ‘The Colour Purple,’ can be used as a perfect metaphor here.

I’m Here could be one of the finest eleven o’clock numbers written for musical theatre.T’shan Williams certainly used every part of her voice and more to deliever this delightfully.

As I said this is no feel good musical, it is a electrical jolt of a feel anything and everything musical. This musical is a perfect reminder why I have became a servant of the genre.

The Leicester Curver audience responded at the end with a standing ovation, what else could they do?

That is why I give it 5 Stars.

There were definitely lines in there that I remember from the OBC, that weren't in the MCF/Broadway Revival, but I know the latter a lot better than the Original Broadway one. So it's either a mix of both or the original one, if that helps?

Like the bit the church ladies sing before the Easter meal was cut for the MFC/Broadway Revival, but is in this production.

Great spot.

Saw this tonight in Brum.
A very slow-paced maudlin piece.
Audience were shouting out to prompt actors and laughing at inappropriate moments.No real emotional connection with the acting for me.
For long periods,I was bored with the whole thing.
One of the worst sets that I have ever seen....A twenty foot high wooden fence with projections and a few retractable scenes in two docks.Very drab and lacking in creativity.Glad we got a very cheap deal on this.
1 star for the singing.

^Loved T’shan in Heathers.
Top price seats for this were £104 so having a rather basic cheapo set is no excuse for people who have paid those kind of prices.Glad we got a brilliant deal on this,but not everyone will have.
As a previous poster noted,the problem with the book of this show is that it flits from scenes of abuse and extreme sadness to bawdy humour and broad comedy in the blink of an eye and therefore nothing lands emotionally.Got very frustrated and bored with this fast-food type emotional button-pushing very quickly.
Alarming that the programme actually encourages patrons to ‘go ahead and make some joyful noise’,DURING the show if the ‘purple feeling takes you’,whatever the hell that means! Felt like a bizarre cross between a night at the Panto and a church revivalist meeting last night lol.A very weird and unseemly vibe in the audience especially with the incredibly powerful themes on stage.Everyone to his own,but not for me and sadly I will regard this as a clunker alongside the turkeys known as Rock Of Ages and Jersey Boys.
On a more positive note,there was a beautiful hour of music in the stalls bar between 6 and 7 last night as part of the Brum Jazz/Blues festival.The band were called Blue Silk,I think and did some Ella,Al Green,Beatles and the iconic ‘Summertime’....sublime!

Yep...£104.50 for front stalls/circle on the main site...and yep again...we had whooping,hollering,audience advising Celie to marry/not marry, audience sympathising on a character pronouncing how bad their life was which stopped the show for clapping and shouting,cheering on Sofia etc etc.My 14 year old daughter said how much she hated people shouting out! Suppose you could say that people felt ‘connected’ to the material, but my jaundiced view was that we had a tanked-up Friday night mob who thought they had stumbled into ‘Mama Mia’ by mistake lol.Mind you,one gent three rows behind me didn’t notice...he was snoring like a warthog asleep on his partners shoulder.Have taken hundreds of students to matinees full of schools parties dozens of times in the past and heard less crass behaviour to be honest...sorry to be a dinosaur but if the show programme openly encourages it,well...?

^I didn’t say anything about what the ticket includes??If you wanted top price premium tickets it’s £104.50,regardless of what that includes...I didn’t make ANY distinction.The VIP tickets at the Hippo are carefully controlled and not necessarily available also at the lower prices you quote....I should know,I have used these VIP tkts many times.It is often supply and demand.The point I was making was that whether £50 or £100 or even the Travel Zoo cheapo deal that we had,you should expect the set to consist of more than a large wooden fence.A primary school kid could have come up with something better lol