color her world

COURTESY PHOTO Kenita R. Miller (Celie), Felicia P. Fields (Sofia) and Lesly Terrell Donald (Buster) in “The Color Purple.” a CTRESS KENITA MILLER LOVES “THE COLOR PURPLE,” both the book and the movie, but when she heard it was being turned into a musical, it gave her pause.

“A musical adaptation?” she says. “I thought, ‘I don’t know…’” But the more she learned about it, the more she liked the idea. After all, the people behind the scenes were well respected in the arts and entertainment world.

Oprah Winfrey, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as Sofia in the film version, is one of the show’s producers, as well as a major investor. Marsha Norman, recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for the play “’night, Mother,” wrote the book for the musical, and Brenda Russell, Ailee Willis and Stephen Bray wrote the music.

Ms. Miller was introduced to “The Color Purple” at an early age.

“I saw the movie first,” she says. “My older sister had the book in her room. When she left home, I was in her room all the time. My mom was saying ‘Not yet,’ but I read it anyway. I couldn’t understand a lot of the dynamics of the book, but there was something very captivating and charming about it. I read it several times, and each time understood more.”

The novelist Alice Walker, who received the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for “The Color Purple,” is one of Ms. Miller’s favorite writers. “I really respect her work,” she says. “She’s such a powerful force.” When she finally had the opportunity to meet the author, Ms. Miller adds, “My encounter wasn’t more than ‘Hi’ and ‘Thank you for your work.’ I couldn’t drum up more to say. I’m in such awe of her and her work, and the way she articulates herself through her work.”

Above: Kenita R. Miller (Celie) and LaToya London (Nettie). At left: “Push Da Button” featuring Angela Robinson (Shug Avery.) “The Color Purple” comes to the Phil Dec. 8-13. COURTESY PHOTOS And that musical adaptation the actress initially wasn’t too sure about?

Ms. Miller performed in the lead as Celie on Broadway, and now she’s reprising the role in the musical’s first national tour, which plays at the Philharmonic Center for the Arts through Sunday, Dec. 13.

Something to strive for

“The Color Purple” tells the story of Celie, a young black girl in rural Georgia in the 1930s. By age 14, she has been raped by her father and given birth to two of his children. When the children disappear, she assumes her father has killed them.

Celie then marries a man she calls Mister, who’s physically and emotionally abusive. Her sister Nettie lives with them, but is sent away when she refuses Mister’s advances. Nettie goes to Africa, and Mister hides all the letters she sends back to Celie.

When Mister’s mistress, a nightclub singer named Shug, comes to live with them, Celie and Shug become intimate and their relationship empowers Celie to recognize her own beauty and abilities.

Although the story is told from an African-American perspective, “Celie’s a human, she’s a woman first,” Ms. Miller says, adding anyone, even men, can identify with the story. “Men go through abuse as well,” she says.

For Ms. Miller as an actress, it’s been “almost spoiling” to tell a story that’s so versatile in its own right and that reaches such a diverse dynamic of people, she says.

After one Broadway performance, she says, a white woman came up to her, crying. “She hugged me and said, ‘I just want you to know that the story was so powerful. I didn’t know if I wanted to come at first, because this is my story. I lost my sister, but I never got her back.’”

Ms. Miller didn’t know what else to do but hug the woman.

“I feel very honored to help heal somebody (though my acting),” she says. “That’s important to me, Kenita, that I’m doing something for a reason, not letting life pass me by without connecting to others.”

Her role as Celie, she adds, “has given me something to strive for — to play more human, not the stereotype that I easily fit into.

“Celie has given me a taste for humanity.”

A tough act to follow?

Ms. Miller says she wasn’t at all intimidated by playing a role so many people associate with Whoopi Goldberg, who portrayed Celie in the movie. She met the actress/comedian a year and a half ago, when Ms. Goldberg joined the cast of “Xanadu,” in which Ms. Miller was performing on Broadway.

“The very first night she went on, I looked over and saw her profile and said ‘Oh my God, that’s Celie.’ She’s such a remarkable human being. I don’t think anybody could fill those shoes, or give what she gave. There was something very unique and extremely genuine with her portrayal of Celie.”

“Xanadu,” she adds, was “such a satire, such a goofy show.” (A national production of the roller disco musical plays at the Phil next spring, April 23-25.)

In “Xanadu” Ms. Miller played a muse, wearing spandex, a big Afro and roller skates. In contrast, she says, “The Color Purple” “makes people think. It’s big, more intimate… it takes you inside of yourself. It’s a gift.”

Ms. Miller loves that the role of Celie isn’t a stereotype.

“People can easily say it is, because of the setting and the time period,” she says. “But you can put it in any time period. I know people in my family whose story this is, to a T. Not just ancestors, people back in the day, but more recently in my generation.

“You can take it out of the culture, even,” she adds. “It’s a very human story. I would hate for that to be overlooked.”

Finding the love

As for whether Celie and Shug are lesbians, “I feel it depends on the person, as far as perspective,” Ms. Miller says. “For me, I believe that if you connect with it being a lesbian dynamic, that’s what it is for you.

“I think of myself as a person who doesn’t categorize. These are people who fall in love with different spirits they’re attracted to, the soul they’re attracted to, and that comes down to a sexual chemistry, for them.

“If society wants to categorize them, it limits us as human,” she adds. “I think these are two women who fall in love with each other, yes. Shug is the first person who besides her sister says ‘Celie, I love you. You’re beautiful. You have a grace I’ve never seen before.’ She helps Celie fall in love with herself.”

The fact that the men in her world are so abusive also affects Celie’s perspective. “She clings to whoever is going to give her love,” Ms. Miller says. “You cling to wherever love is.”

Celie’s journey takes her to the song “I’m Here,” which Ms. Miller sings just before the finale, declaring powerfully:
“I believe I have inside of me

Everything that I need to live a
bountiful life.




With all the love alive in me

I’ll stand as tall as the tallest tree.




And I’m


Thankful for every day that I’m given,





Both the easy and the hard ones I’m


livin’.






But most of all


I’m thankful for


Loving who I really am.


I’m beautiful.









Yes, I’m beautiful,









And I’m here.”

“This song is like her theme song,” Ms. Miller says. “It’s her coming into herself, accepting herself. She’s always been a person accepting of what life has brought her. I think she’s more a survivor than a victim. When she gets to saying, ‘I’m here, I am beautiful, I love myself, I can be loved, I receive love,’ I think she comes full circle.

“It’s a very powerful journey I take every night. It makes me aspire to be a person that whatever life brings me, I love who I am, I love who I’m becoming through these experiences.”

No matter how she feels going into a show, by the end, she feels as if she’s gained something, she says. “I’ve conquered something by going through the journey. It’s such an uplifting story.

“No matter how hard it is to jump into it, at the end I feel triumphant.” 

if you go

>> “The Color Purple”
>> When: Dec. 9 through Dec. 13
>> Where: The Philharmonic Center for the
Arts, 5833 Pelican Bay Blvd., Naples
Cost: $79
>> Information: Call 597-1900 or go to
www.thephil.org