Originally posted February 28, 2010. Full blog post: https://darrenblaney.blogspot.com/2010/02/my-first-weekend-living-in-weho-color.html
Those of you who know me might be surprised to hear that I now have a West Hollywood address, as this part of the world is a bit more chic than the kinds of neighborhoods in which I've lived previously, Bernal Heights in SF and Park Slope in Brooklyn aside. At any rate, Larry and I have been working our fingers to the nubbins all weekend trying to organize, unpack, and merge homes. Does one home really *need* two hammers, three toilet brushes, and 6 separate Trader Joe's packages of low-sodium roasted almonds, I ask you? The answer is "HELL NO!" but these are the kinds of questions one must face when one has limited space, is over 40, and is trying to merge homes with another man who is 46!
Well, the highlight of our weekend was definitely yesterday afternoon. Larry read a review in the L.A. Times last week and got it in his head to get us tickets to see the musical version of "The Color Purple" at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. Needless to say, it was an amazing experience... as much for the fantastic crowd as for the skillful singing and dancing and strong dramatic performances of all the actors on stage. Not to mention the comedic timing of Felicia P. Fields, the actress who played the Sophia character (the one Oprah played in the film). Her delivery alone made the cost of the tickets worthwhile. The entire event was fabulous... where else in L.A. would you find a crowd that was probably 70% gorgeous dark-skinned beauties of both genders, dressed to the nines, and 15% queer women and men of every race, all laughing, applauding, and crying together under one roof??? It was an event that might have made an academic like Jill Dolan blush with glee. The play provided an opportunity for a very interesting cross section of Los Angeles to come together that you probably wouldn't find interacting with each other in many other places... Larry and I found the performance to be extremely emotionally uplifting. Fantasia was unquestionably brilliant: she channeled Whoopie Goldberg and Patti Labelle simultaneously, all the while finding her authentic voice, discovering "the beauty in myself" as the lyrics to one of the songs went. It was, in a word, awesome!!
Seeing the play made me think about what "the classics" in literature might mean to this next generation. Certainly, having a film and now this musical theater piece based off of her work must make Alice Walker take pause. Time has passed. The novel version of "The Color Purple", a phenomenal work written by a black queer feminist in the early 1980s and now read by high school and college students, will be to the next generations what "Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer" were to our parents and grandparents. That's my hopeful prediction. Seeing this Broadway production in L.A. made me grateful to Oprah Winfrey, Quincey Jones, and all the other producers who are making sure that the talents of the younger generation - like Fantasia - have quality material with which to work.