*A new stage adaptation of the classic “Purple Rain” film is in the works.
Producer Orin Wolf is developing a stage version of “Purple Rain” — based on the original screenplay by Albert Magnoli and William Blinn, Variety reports. The 1984 film is a loosely autobiographical film produced by and starring the late musician Prince.
Wolf tapped director Lileana Blain-Cruz for the project and playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins to write the new musical’s book.
“We can’t think of a more fitting tribute than to honor Prince and the ‘Purple Rain’ legacy with this stage adaptation of the beloved story,” said L. Londell McMillan, chairman of The NorthStar Group, and Larry Mestel, founder and CEO of Primary Wave Music.
“We are thrilled with our Broadway partners and creative team, who are bringing a theatricality to the film’s original fictional story. We can’t wait for a new generation to discover ‘Purple Rain’ and for lovers of the original film and album to experience its power once again, this time live,” Mestel added.
Prince’s “Purple Rain” movie grossed nearly $100 million and won an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. The soundtrack features timeless hits such as “When Doves Cry,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” and “I Would Die 4 U.”
Music critic and journalist Alan Light noted in his book, “Let’s Go Crazy,” that the tension between Prince and The Revolution and between Prince and Morris Day, as depicted in the movie, was real.
“It’s still something that’s obviously very tangible to the band members,” Light told NPR in a 2014 interview. “And while, in general, speaking to the members of the band, their memories of the time are all very positive and very good, certainly there was this sense of, “Were they really a band, or were they just there to execute Prince’s vision?” [It] became a very complicated relationship. I think that he made a really deliberate decision that if he was gonna cross over to a bigger audience, especially to a big rock ‘n’ roll audience, he was gonna position himself as a guitar player who’s the frontman of a rock band,” he explained.
“Purple Rain was not an album by Prince. It was an album by Prince and The Revolution. And he made a very clear distinction that he was gonna bring the band forward, put himself at the center of that,” Light continued.
“But the fact is, this is a guy who writes and sings and produces and, you know, is capable of doing everything himself. So how much actually input he’s willing to take, how much that was just about how he could use the band for positioning, and how much they were actually a creative force was something that became a source of real tension as the project went on and as they went out touring and playing stadiums. Were these guys just hired hands, or were they actually a real band? And that’s still something that they struggle with.”
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