Broadway star LaChanze doesn’t need Warner Bros. to love her, but she does want financial compensation for helping write a pivotal song from “The Color Purple.”
The three-time Tony Award winner, who originated the role of Celie in the first “Color Purple” Broadway show in 2005, said that she has seemingly “been left out” of the press tour for Warner Bros.’ newest take on Alice Walker‘s novel. LaChanze said in a Tuesday post on X that while she is “thrilled for the movie’s success,” she feels she needs to get her due.
“Happy for all involved,” she wrote. “However, I do want my royalty fee for the lyrics I added to ‘I’m Here.’”
The 62-year-old singer (whose full name is Rhonda LaChanze Sapp) did not go into further detail about the specific lyrics she added to the moving ballad, which comes near the end of the musical’s final act. In an interview with Time, the Broadway star explained how she worked with songwriters Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray to put together the number and the lyrics she contributed.
“I said, ‘I wanna flirt with somebody, I know I got my sister. She can’t be with me. But she’s still my sister, and I know she loves me and my children,’” she recalled. “I didn’t put it together in the way they did, but my feelings, my emotions, and my thoughts about what I was experiencing as the actor embodying Celie they put in the song. So I like to say I helped write the song.”
The Times has reached out to representatives for LaChanze and Warner Bros. for comment.
With “I’m Here,” Celie turns a moment of heartbreak into celebration after her friend-turned-lover Shug shares her plans to leave for a new relationship with a young man. Russell, Willis and Bray are the only songwriters credited for creating the musical numbers, which carry over to the new “Color Purple” film.
In 2006, LaChanze won her first Tony Award for her work in the inaugural “Color Purple” Broadway production, produced by Scott Sanders, Quincy Jones and Oprah Winfrey. The three producers were also involved in Steven Spielberg‘s 1985 film adaptation, and they reunited for director Blitz Bazawule‘s movie.
Years after her “American Idol” win in 2004, Fantasia Barrino took over as Celie in “The Color Purple” on Broadway in 2007. The singer said in a recent interview her “life was in shambles” after the emotionally draining experience. She ended her run in 2008.
Now, Barrino brings Celie to life again in Warner Bros.’ second “Color Purple” film. She stars alongside Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Ciara, Halle Bailey, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins and Phylicia Pearl Mpasi.
For The Times, critic Katie Walsh wrote, “Barrino, making her film debut, delivers a stunning performance as Celie, holding the emotional center over decades.”
Walsh added: “While [‘The Color Purple’] tackles dark material, over the course of its journey, it will make you want to stand up and cheer, again and again.”
