'The Color Purple'

The Best of Broadway is going to do right by you Tuesday through Thursday when it presents "The Color Purple, A Musical About Love" at the North Charleston Coliseum.

The musical version of the classic Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker (and ensuing film by Steven Spielberg) was nominated for 11 Tony Awards including Best Musical. The Grammy-nominated score features gospel, jazz, pop and the blues to carry a story about overcoming adversity, hope and love.

"I hope people walk away with a deeper understanding of how much adversity can shape you for the better," said Lee Colston, II, who plays Harpo. "But also the power to love and the power to forgive is so much more meaningful than allowing your circumstances to dictate how your life is going to go.

"God is love and God is a part of everything; he's not just a man in the clouds. I hope people learn to love more and to forgive more," he continued.

"There's a line in the show about how some people go to church to find God, but the character says how when they went to church, they already had God in them. I think this story awakens God in people, and he's this giant of love, that's been hiding in people and we haven't given ourselves permission to feel that."

Colston's character, Harpo, is a man conflicted between his father's expectations of him as a married man (abusive) and how he really is (not abusive). In fact, in one scene, when he tries to beat his wife, Sofia, at his father's advice, he ends up being beaten himself.

"He's a pretty conflicted guy, torn between two worlds. He's torn between the old ways of how to treat women and the new ways, and his father isn't exactly the best role model," explained Colston. "Sofia challenges him at every turn. ... It's a direct contradiction with what his father has raised him to believe. Harpo represents the new modern man, if you will, in the story."

While Colston can relate with how to treat women, he differs from Harpo in another way.

"I think I'm a little bit more of a rebel than Harpo," he said. "It's just that he is always looking for others to give him direction, and I'm more of a go-getter; I don't look for others to give me direction."

Colston said he is excited to play this role because the story of "The Color Purple" has been with him since childhood.

He remembers how the women in his family would quote lines from it and his sisters would act it out when younger. It's become a staple in his life and with his family.

"I think what I enjoy the most isn't even with the being in the production; it's the outreach we do with the kids," said Colston.

"We've been going to schools and performing arts venues and talking to the kids. And their eyes just light up. We'll talk about how 'The Color Purple' has affected their lives. I was that kid not that long ago, and it's so powerful for me to be that person to them now and share that experience with them."