“Purple Rain,” a Hennepin Arts musical based on the 1984 movie of the same name, made its official pre-Broadway debut Wednesday at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, just one block away from the historic First Avenue nightclub where the movie was set.
Did it live up to the original? Yes and no.
In preparation for seeing the musical, I watched the original movie for the first time. I had often heard it criticized as more of a venue to show off the musical talents of Prince and his band The Revolution — and to a lesser extent, other Minneapolis sound acts like Morris Day and The Time and Apollonia 6 — than an actual movie.
The stage adaptation changes this with more focus on the characters and story, and it certainly helps that the acting performances were better than the original’s, which felt a bit flat. In particular, Apollonia, Morris and Billy all felt like more lively characters in the musical than in the movie, and The Kid felt less awkward.
The main antagonist Morris, played by Jared Howelton, had his attributes from the original amplified by one thousand. He’s flashy, flamboyant and egotistical, and he makes his goal — sleeping with Apollonia, the female lead — very clear to the audience. This results in some funny moments, such as Morris covering his crotch with a piece of paper after seeing Apollonia 6 rehearse.
There’s also more focus on Rachel Webb’s Apollonia herself in this show compared to the movie. The film unfortunately doesn’t do much with her character other than making her the love interest of the main protagonist, The Kid, played by Prince himself.
In the musical, she’s more empowered, even pushing back against Morris so that her bandmates in the girl group he created could play their own instruments instead of just dancing on stage.
The owner of The First, an obvious stand-in for First Avenue, Billy (Lawrence Gilliard Jr.), is also a different character. In the movie, he’s a secondary antagonist conspiring with Morris to replace The Kid and his band, The Revolution. In this version, he’s more of a coach for The Kid, even offering him the chance to talk to his former bandmates to get him making music that draws people to the club after Apollonia breaks up with him.
It’s a bit of a weird change considering his presentation is similar to Morris’, but it works. It makes his character seem more real and less greedy, with his motivations set on growing the Minneapolis music scene, in addition to running a successful club.
Unfortunately, The Kid (Kris Kollins in the musical) is not much different from how he is in the movie. He’s still an argumentative, ego-fueled jerk who pushes the members of his band away and gets indignant towards Apollonia when she decides to join a girl group. To be honest, it was kind of hard to root for him as a protagonist, even though Morris was clearly shown to be less scrupulous.
To be clear, I don’t blame Kollins for this, as I think he gave a good performance; it just happened to be for a character I didn’t like.
There’s more focus on The Kid’s inner turmoil, culminating in a scene where a slew of voicemails play after he disparages Apollonia with the song “Darling Nikki,” about a promiscuous woman who goes by the name Apollonia’s abusive father used for her. After pushing away the love of his life and his band, The Kid sees Apollonia walk across the stage, looking back at him while he puts a noose around his neck before his father and two members of his band intervene.
The ending left a bit to be desired. The Kid realizes that he has the band to help support him, and returns to The First’s stage to play the title track. However, the conflict between The Kid and Apollonia remains unsolved, and although they dance together during the last two songs (“I Would Die 4 You” and “Baby I’m a Star”), it’s just for the curtain call. Perhaps the message was that they didn’t need each other after all but it still feels incomplete.
This musical is great for reliving the music of the original, which remains mostly unchanged from the movie with some additions like a sensual duet between The Kid and Apollonia in “Electric Intercourse.” However, the improvements in acting and overall focus of the story are marred by the feeling that this play is unfinished.
“Purple Rain” runs until Nov. 23 at State Theatre. Tickets are available at hennepinarts.org.
Miles Schiffer can be reached at schi9629@stthomas.edu.
