The Color Purple

Tonight, I went on a "date" with Miles to see The Color Purple, the Broadway show. It's playing at the Orange County Performing Arts Center (OCPAC) right now. I bought season tickets to the Broadway shows for the 08-09 season at OCPAC and The Color Purple is the first show in the series.

For those unfamiliar with the show, or the Oprah movie, or the book, it's about a girl name Celie, who lives in the early 1900s in Georgia. And it's basically her life, living with an abusive father, then an abusive husband, and her struggles through it all. I had never read the book or seen the movie. And I had never heard any part of the musical either. And that's a first, because every musical I've been to, I was familiar with the music beforehand. But this time I wasn't.

I think had I been a little bit more familiar with the music, I would've enjoyed it more. I was sitting in the nosebleeds (cheap seats) so it was a little hard to hear the dialogue and some of the singing. I mean, it was loud enough, but I couldn't understand the words very clearly. And the music was okay. Nothing that I'm totally excited about. It didn't make me want to buy the CD. The singing was amazing. GREAT vocals from the girl who played Celie. But the show as a whole didn't "wow" me.

It was sort of hyped up to be a musical about love that was going to be super emotional. My friends warned me to bring tissues since they know me to be an emotional guy that cries... er... tears up in movies. (When I was flying home from Tokyo by myself 2 years ago, the movie CLICK with Adam Sandler was on, and I was bawling like a baby! Tears flowing down my face, snot coming out, and that thing you do where you're trying to catch your breath when you're crying.. yea.. all of that.. while on a plane, sitting next to strangers who probably thought that I was crazy) So, I was all ready with a half dozen or so sheets of Kleenex. But I didn't have to use any! I teared up at the end.. but that was about it! I don't know... I guess it's never good to have anything hyped up because there are just expectations that are usually not met.

Oh well -- the tickets were relatively cheap (since they're part of the season tickets) and it was a nice night off. And Miles and I checked out these three gay guys sitting in the row below us and to the left. They looked over at us a few times too. There was one guy who was totally my type: cute face, blonde hair, light eyes, and around my height. YUM. Unfortunately, they left at intermission to find better seats, while we just stayed put. We should've followed them!!