Purple Rain

Purple Rain is a rock musical adapted from the 1984 movie Purple Rain, Prince's first feature film. It is set in Minneapolis in 1984 and centers on a young musician and bandleader called The Kid, who is trying to make his name in the city's clubs while his home life and his own history pull him the other way. The score is built from Prince's songs, more than 20 of them, with music and lyrics credited to him. The production is also billed as Prince's Purple Rain.

The source is a film and an album at once, and both have a track record. The film, written by Albert Magnoli and William Blinn, won an Academy Award for its score, and the soundtrack album Prince recorded with the Revolution is a Grammy winner.

It is a new musical rather than a revival, and this is its first Broadway production. It premiered in 2025 in Minneapolis, Prince's hometown. For New York it has a new director, Saheem Ali, and a new book by Peter Duchan, while much of the music and design team from Minneapolis returns. Orin Wolf is the producer.

The year is 1984, and music television has started turning unknown performers into stars almost overnight. In Minneapolis, The Kid is an up-and-coming name on the club scene: a magnetic presence on stage, fronting a band that looks ready for bigger things. What stands in his way is his own past, which puts everything he has worked for at risk. Music is the one way through that he trusts.

Three pressures shape the plot. At home, his family life is turbulent. In the clubs, he is up against a rival band. And there is Apollonia, an aspiring singer, with whom he starts a romance. In Minneapolis the characters also included Father, Billy Sparks, Morris, Jerome, Wendy and Lisa.

People who know the movie will recognize the outline. On screen, The Kid leads his band, the Revolution, at the First Avenue nightclub while trying to escape a violent home. Morris Day of the Time competes with him for the club's house-band slots and recruits Apollonia for a girl group. The new Broadway book may handle that material, and those characters, differently.

The core of the score is the Purple Rain soundtrack, Prince's sixth studio album, recorded with the Revolution and released by Warner Bros. Records on June 25, 1984, about a month before the film opened. The album has nine tracks; the stage score adds songs from elsewhere in Prince's catalog.

On the charts, it spent 24 weeks in a row at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and it has been certified 13 times platinum by the RIAA. Two of its singles, including "When Doves Cry," topped the Billboard Hot 100.

The production has named four songs in the show: "When Doves Cry," "I Would Die 4 U," "Take Me with U" and "The Beautiful Ones." Earlier announcements for the Minneapolis production also listed "Baby I'm a Star" and the title song, "Purple Rain." All six come from the 1984 album. As of October 2026, no full song list by act had been published.

Jason Michael Webb is the music supervisor, and he also arranges and orchestrates the songs, turning these records into a theater score. Two musicians from Prince's own bands serve as Prince music advisors. Bobby Z was the Revolution's drummer from 1978 to 1986 and appeared in the film. Morris Hayes was a member of the New Power Generation for nearly two decades and spent several years as Prince's musical director.

The film was shot mostly in Minneapolis between October and December 1983. Directed by Albert Magnoli and released by Warner Bros. Pictures on July 27, 1984, it surrounded Prince with a cast that included Morris Day, Apollonia Kotero, Clarence Williams III and Olga Karlatos. At the 57th Academy Awards it took the Oscar for Best Original Song Score, and in 2019 it entered the National Film Registry.

Prince Rogers Nelson was born on June 7, 1958, and died on April 21, 2016. He won seven Grammy Awards, and in 2004 he joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He left no will, and his estate and music rights were not settled until 2022. L. Londell McMillan of NorthStar Group, Prince's former manager, and Larry Mestel of Primary Wave Music have said that Prince spoke for years about bringing Purple Rain to the stage.

Producer Orin Wolf, whose earlier credits include The Band's Visit, announced the stage adaptation on January 8, 2024, with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins writing the book and Lileana Blain-Cruz directing. On February 6, 2024, a world premiere at the State Theatre in Minneapolis was set for spring 2025. In October 2024 the premiere was pushed back to October 16, 2025, to allow more time for creative development. By October 2025, Jacobs-Jenkins had spent five years on the adaptation.

Holding the premiere in Prince's hometown also put the show close to the film's world: the 2,150-seat State Theatre stands a short walk from First Avenue, the club where the film's story is set. The city had launched a Broadway-bound musical before: The Lion King had its pre-Broadway tryout there in 1997.

On August 12, 2025, Kris Kollins, a singer-songwriter based in Washington, D.C., who had been discovered through social media, was announced as The Kid; the role was his professional stage debut. Rachel Webb, who had starred in the national tour and the Broadway production of & Juliet, was cast as Apollonia. The rest of the company was announced on August 21, 2025. Jason Korn was the alternate for The Kid, Lawrence Gilliard Jr. played Billy Sparks, and Taylor Williams handled casting.

Hennepin Arts presented the engagement as part of Bank of America Broadway on Hennepin. Previews began on October 16, 2025, opening night followed on November 5, and the last performance was on November 23, 2025.

The Broadway run was announced on July 27, 2026, the film's 42nd anniversary, along with the change of director and book writer. Wolf and Ali had worked together before, on Buena Vista Social Club. Previews at the Majestic Theatre were set to begin on March 12, 2027, with opening night on April 12, 2027.