Last week, I went to a dinner party with a good friend of mine. The seven of us sat on the patio drinking wine after dessert and one woman said she had just returned from New York. She went, she said, to celebrate her teenage niece's birthday. The niece already had her birthday planned. They were going to see Fantasia, of American Idol fame, in the Broadway musical version of The Color Purple.
We all groaned. Ugh! What's worse, an American Idol winner on Broadway or a musical version of one of the best but depressing movies of all time? Many at the table were theater snobs, including the woman telling the story, and we all at some point had tried or succeeded to make a living as actors. But wait, she continued. Produced by Oprah Winfrey, the musical version wasn't as horrifying as it sounds, but even more surprising was Fantasia. She was a mid-run replacement and had never even been to a Broadway show. The producers felt like she was right for the part and must have hoped her notoriety would attract a younger audience.
But as my friend was telling the story, you start to get the feeling this performance was something special. The daughter of a movie star and Tony-award winning actor, she's no stranger to the theater. She told us how she used to work backstage in New York theaters, just to have access to the shows. Twice in her life, she'd seen genuine show-stoppers. It's when, in the middle of a show after a performance, the audience stands up and claps and claps and claps for so long that the performers have no choice but to stop and wait.
One of them was watching Audra McDonald in Carousel. Practically her onstage debut, she was cast against type and blew audiences away taking home an armful of awards. Fantasia's performance, she said, was like that. "It was like seeing a star be born right in front of your eyes." She's not beautiful in the Hollywood way and she has a huge mouth that takes up her whole face, but when she opens it... This from a brilliant actress in her own right, one of the best comedy writers I know and a woman who's been bored watching her own father in a West End show.
What a waste of a trip, she thought, when she found out her niece was dragging her to this. Less than an hour later she was shouting "Amen!" at the stage surrounded by middle-aged African-American women in their Sunday best. It was like a church service. With the porcelain skin and red hair of a true Irish gal, she asked her niece "Why can't white people's church be this fun?" "I KNOW" the teen replies. By the end of the show, tears streaming down her face, she stood and clapped and whistled as loud as she could. Fantasia had blown her away.
But the story wasn't over yet. So moved by this performance, so surprised by this girl, my friend read everything she could find on her and proceeded to tell us about Fantasia. She was touched by her humility in working with stage professionals, her gratitude for all of her success, and her strength and her resilience to overcome difficulties in her life. It was inspiring to see someone so moved by a performance, weeks after the show.
My friend didn't even mention that Fantasia, who is only 22 now, wrote a book about her life then played herself in the TV version making it the second most watched show in Lifetime's history. The reviews of her performance in The Color Purple have been across the board amazing. A star, indeed!
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