Ed. — From the Sunday, Dec. 17, print edition.
VIRGINIA BEACH — Virginia Beach rarely hosts a movie premiere, so an opportunity for a film buff to preview The Color Purple is an early Christmas present.
And local organizations that do good work were among those to host preview screenings locally. An enthusiastic array of purple-clad attendees sold out previews of the new musical film hosted separately by the Virginia Beach NAACP and the Chesapeake/Virginia Beach Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta on Saturday, Dec. 9, and the Virginia Beach Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta on Sunday, Dec. 10.
The new musical opens nationally on Christmas Day, and the events here in Hampton Roads were the hottest tickets in town — and helped worthy local organizations right here in our communities.
Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel has now inspired the earlier film, a stage musical and now the musical film.
Steven Spielberg directed, with music by Quincy Jones, the poignant story to the big screen for the first time in 1985, earning a number of Oscar nominations. With stunning cinematography by Allen Daviau, it starred Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover and Oprah Winfrey, among others.
In 2005, it became a lauded musical on Broadway, re-written for the stage by Marsha Norman with music by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray. A 2015 revival won two Tony Awards. That’s a tough creative act to follow by any measure.
In the latest interpretation, Winfrey makes a cameo appearance instead of reprising her role as Sophia, now played with a bit of verve by Danielle Brittany Brooks — someone to watch. Younger movie fans know her from HBO’s Peacemaker series. Taraji P. Henson, Colman Domingo and Halle Bailey of Disney’s The Little Mermaid fame join her. Fantasia Barrino, who starred in the stage version, makes her film debut.
Our audience greeted each character with applause and cheers as if they were old neighborhood friends when they appeared on screen. It didn’t seem to matter who was playing the character to most of us.
“I enjoyed it,” said Gloria Roscoe-Harris, a Delta, after she attended the Saturday matinee. “It’s about redemption and forgiveness. The first time, it was just a good movie. It still brings tears to your eyes at the end, a story of love between sisters.”
“It was almost like I remember it when it was on Broadway in New York,” Priscilla Burrus-Penny of the Virginia Beach Delta chapter told me. “Our chapter president and event committee did a fantastic job. The staff at Regal was more than accommodating and ensured everything went well for everybody.”
Despite the rain outside for the Sunday showing, it was a red carpet evening with 240 attendees at Regal Theatres hosted by the Virginia Beach Delta chapter.
Geraldine Eady, the chapter president, and her event committee put together a novel event for the theater.
The Delta fundraisers were separate from the NAACP-sponsored premiere, which also sold out.
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority is a private nonprofit organization that aims to provide assistance and support to good efforts in communities. Proceeds from the Beach chapter’s local premiere will benefit the Samaritan House, supporting its mission of helping victims of domestic and sexual violence.
The lobby was abuzz with excitement and banter after the movie.
“The Color Purple movie announcement was first shared with us at our 56th National Convention in July,” Eady said, “with an in-theater date of Christmas Day, so many members were planning to see the movie. However, once we learned of the opportunity to host a preview, we were even more excited and interested.”
The preview sold out so quickly, the group booked a larger theater – and that sold out, too, Eady told me.
“The movie was great,” said Marietta Haggie, an Ocean Lakes resident who joined the sorority when she attended Old Dominion University. “There is a lot to learn from it, a lot of nuggets for everyone. There is something in there everyone can relate to. It was about closure.”
The author is a writer and documentary filmmaker who grew up in Norfolk and lived in Virginia Beach for much of his life. He ran a production company, worked in college athletics and was curator at an art gallery in Virginia Beach for years.
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