'Idol's' Barrino heads to Broadway
Casting will boost flagging box office of 'Purple'
More Articles:
Most Viewed:
Oprah gets steamy with HBO(6370 views)Weitz digs 'Gardener'(3592 views)Brothers(3544 views)ABC adopts 'Find My Family' show(3173 views)Joshua Jackson's captain of 'UFO'(2561 views)'New Moon' shines at box office(2521 views) |
Announcement was made on the Thursday episode of "Idol," during which Barrino sang a re-orchestrated version of "I'm Here," the 11 o'clock number sung by Celie, the character she will play in "Purple."
Replacement casting of one of "Idol's" best-known alums is aimed at boosting the box office of "Purple," which has flagged in recent months despite an initial run of strong sales. Although the $11 million tuner, which opened Nov. 1, 2005, recouped in little more than a year, last month the weekly gross dipped below the $500,000 mark.
Announcing Barrino's casting on TV juggernaut "Idol" was a canny move by "Purple" producers to keep the production's national profile high. Prior to landing on Broadway, "Purple" got a huge publicity bump when Oprah Winfrey signed on as a producer.
Barrino is skedded to appear on Winfrey's show Feb. 28, in part to discuss her Rialto debut.
LaChanze won a 2006 Tony playing Celie. Whoopi Goldberg took on the part in Steven Spielberg's 1985 movie adaptation of Alice Walker's 1982 Pulitzer-winning novel.
Barrino was the winner of the third season of "Idol." She went on to record two albums, the first of which featured a single, "I Believe," that debuted at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The 22-year-old also has written a memoir and starred in a Lifetime telepic of her own story.
Other Broadway productions have had luck with "Idol" vets. Diana DeGarmo, another contestant on the third season of the show, gave "Hairspray" a moderate rise in sales. Josh Strickland stars in "Tarzan," while Constantine Maroulis ("The Wedding Singer") and Frenchie Davis ("Rent") also have had stints on the Rialto.
