Prince Movie Classic Purple Rain Becoming a Stage Musical

July 2024 · 4 minute read

Forty years after “Purple Rain” topped the box office, winning an Oscar for its iconic soundtrack and solidifying Prince‘s status as the high priest of pop, a new stage adaptation of the film classic is in the works.

Based on the original screenplay by Albert Magnoli and William Blinn, the stage version will feature a book by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist who is currently taking Broadway by storm with the critically-heralded “Appropriate.” Lileana Blain-Cruz, a Tony Award nominee who recently oversaw Lincoln Center’s acclaimed revival of “The Skin of Our Teeth,” will direct the show.

Additional production details and timing will be announced in the coming months, the show’s producers said.

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“We can’t think of a more fitting tribute than to honor Prince and the ‘Purple Rain’ legacy with this stage adaptation of the beloved story,” said L. Londell McMillan, chairman of The NorthStar Group, and Larry Mestel, founder and CEO of Primary Wave Music. “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.”

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For the few who haven’t seen “Purple Rain” (do yourself a favor), the film centers around The Kid, an aspiring rocker in the Minneapolis club scene, as he contends with a complicated home life, musical rivals and a new romance. Released in 1984 by Warner Bros, the film was directed by Magnoli and marked Prince’s film debut. He’d go on to appear in movies like “Graffiti Bridge” and “Under the Cherry Moon,” but those films didn’t match the success of “Purple Rain,” which grossed nearly $100 million worldwide.

As a musician, Prince would sell over 150 million records worldwide and receive seven Grammy Awards, seven Brit Awards, six American Music Awards, and four MTV Video Awards. Prince and The Revolution’s soundtrack, “Purple Rain,” was released in June 1984. The album received two Grammys, three American Music Awards, two Brit Awards and an Academy Award for best original song score. The album remained at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for 24 weeks.

Jacobs-Jenkins’s theater credits include “The Comeuppance,” “Gloria,” and “An Octoroon.” Blain-Cruz’s projects include Michael R. Jackson’s “White Girl in Danger” and “Dreaming Zenzile.”

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