Prince’s iconic 1984 film Purple Rain is set to find new life on the Broadway stage.
Orin Wolf, who will produce the Broadway musical adaptation of the film, announced the news on Monday. Wolf produced the Broadway productions of 2012’s Once and 2017’s The Band’s Visit, both of which won the Best Musical Tony Award. He was also behind the hit 2014 musical Beautiful: The Carole King Story and the acclaimed 2018 play To Kill a Mockingbird.
The Broadway musical will also feature a book written by Pulitzer Prize-finalist playwright Branden Jacob-Jenkins. The book will be based on the original screenplay of the 1984 film, written by Albert Magnoli and William Blinn.
Purple Rain was Prince’s film debut and is a semiautobiographical tale about an up-and-coming rock musician in the Minneapolis club scene who struggles with tumultuous family drama, a rival band and a budding romance.
The film went on to gross $100 million worldwide, and the film’s soundtrack earned Prince two Grammys and the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. In 2019, the movie was added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
“It’s been almost 40 years since Prince’s legendary film, Purple Rain, took the world by storm and 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,” producers L. Londell McMillan, chairman of The NorthStar Group, and Larry Mestel, founder & CEO of Primary Wave Music, said in a statement.
“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.”
At present time, no production details or timing have been announced, but it was revealed that the musical will be directed by Tony-nominee Lileana Blain-Cruz.
