For many, the color purple is just another secondary color on the color wheel. But for Minnesotans purple embodies rhythm, freedom and belonging. Minnesota, the city that raised the late Prince now welcomes his story home as the State Theatre hosts the pre-Broadway world premiere of Purple Rain™, running through November 23, 2025. Tickets are available at hennepinarts.org/events/purple-rain-2025.
The stage adaptation of Prince’s legendary film and album Purple Rain™ is based on the original screenplay by Albert Magnoli and William Blinn. This pre-Broadway engagement is directed by Tony Award nominee Lileana Blain-Cruz. The play also features a book by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and music and lyrics by Prince, with music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations by Tony Award winner Jason Michael Webb and choreography by Emmy Award winner Ebony Williams. Longtime Prince collaborators Bobby Z and Morris Hayes join the creative team as Prince Music Advisors.
In a recent recording of The Conversation with Al McFarlane, the director and writer discussed how they hope to bring Prince’s spirit to the stage while preserving his defiance of boundaries. The discussion revealed a project grounded in courage, community and creativity.
Lileana Blain-Cruz reflected on what it means to bring Purple Rain™ back to its birthplace. “To be in the town that he shot it in, to be in the place that inspired him, means a lot. For him this city was a major font of inspiration. It was his home,” she said. Working in the same environment that shaped Prince’s artistry, she sees the production as a cultural homecoming.
Similar to Blain-Cruz, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins also explained that being in Minneapolis to work on this project, charged him with the same emotions. “Being able to come here, to his city, where he lived, and work on his music is the one thing that keeps me going,” he said. “I hope this becomes a gift to the people here who helped build what he started,” he said.
During the conversation, McFarlane asked how Purple Rain™ could speak to today’s moment of social and political division. “How does Purple Rain™ make a statement of being itself and reflect a spirit that refuses to be suppressed or to conform?” he asked.
Jacobs-Jenkins replied, “I was on the phone today with my therapist who said that free speech is under attack. There’s no way that this company of people, here by the grace of the city of Minneapolis, are not feeling that pressure or fear. But when you have the example of an artist who was brave, who said, ‘Nobody’s doing this, but I’m going to do it,’ and it reminds you that strength in difficult times gives light and hope to others. They want to squash imagination and independent thought. Prince was the artist who said, ‘You can’t do that to me. I’m going to stay free.’ That gives me hope. It keeps me going in the morning.”
That same message of creative defiance is at the heart of the groundbreaking and widely anticipated new production. In the context of the play, Minneapolis is treated not as a backdrop but as a living character in the story. Explaining the thoughts behind this, Blain-Cruz expressed that the city’s sound and texture are inseparable from Prince’s work. “This city was a major font of inspiration… We want to honour that while also creating something that can reach the world,” she said.
McFarlane, whose Insight News offices once stood a block from First Avenue where Prince filmed Purple Rain, described Minneapolis as a city that continually renews its creative power. “Prince turned this city into a global stage,” he said. “Now this city is turning his story into a global stage play.”
Adding on this profound statement by McFarlane, Jacobs-Jenkins added: “This city gave him everything, the grit, the contrast, the courage. You can feel it in the music. This is not only a musical. It is a study in what it means to stay human and stay free.”
Blain-Cruz and Jacobs-Jenkins view Purple Rain™ as more than a retelling of a film and view it rather as is a celebration of artistic boldness. Moreso, the film is also an invitation to experience music as both performance, and as principle. “Prince created from the same Minneapolis that continues to demand change and reinvention,” McFarlane said. “His music was freedom music. It is only right that his story returns home first.”
As Purple Rain™ continues its run at the State Theatre, audiences will witness more than the familiar songs. They will experience a living story about courage, love, and creativity unfolding in the same city that shaped the man himself.
Jacobs-Jenkins closed the conversation with a thought that reflects the project’s intent. “Being here, working on his music, that’s what keeps me going,” he said. “It is my hope the show becomes a gift to the people here, the ones who made this possible.”
In Minneapolis, the sound of Purple Rain™ still echoes through the streets. It remains a call to freedom and imagination. As Al McFarlane observed, “When you walk down First Avenue today you can still feel it, the energy, the joy, the belief in the power of art. That is what Prince left us, and that is what Purple Rain™ brings back home.”
