Prince’s 'Purple Rain' is being adapted into a Broadway musical - almost 40 years after film and album's release
- Publish Date
- Tuesday, 9 January 2024, 11:17AM
Almost 40 years since the legendary film took the world by storm, Purple Rain will be getting a stage adaptation.
The 1984 drama film starred late pop legend Prince - who died in 2016 at the age of 57 - as a musician known as The Kid on the rise with his band.
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The show will tell the fictional story of "an up-and-coming rock musician in the Minneapolis club scene, as he contends with a tumultuous home environment, a rival band and a budding romance."
It will be based on the original screenplay by Albert Magnoli and William Blinn, will feature a book by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and be directed by Tony-nominated Lileana Blain-Cruz.
Larry Mestel, founder and CEO of Primary Wave Music, added, “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."
The music and lyrics will come from Prince, including hit singles such as When Doves Cry, Let's Go Crazy, I Would Die 4 UÂ and of course, Purple Rain.
The album was a huge success, selling over 25 million copies worldwide and winning Prince two Grammys and an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.
We don't yet know any further details, or when it will be ready to take to the stage, but we can't wait!
Purple Rain was Prince's motion picture debut, earning $100 million worldwide and in 2019 the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Earlier last year, Prince’s home state of Minnesota honoured him by renaming a stretch of highway after him that runs past his Paisley Park home. The ink the governor signed the renaming bill in was purple — Prince’s signature colour.
- Additional writing from Bang! Showbiz.
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