Prince’s Purple Rain Musical Sets Broadway Premiere for 2027
Broadway is preparing to turn purple, with the stage adaptation of Prince’s landmark film and album PURPLE RAIN officially booking its New York premiere for 2027.
The musical will begin previews at Broadway’s Majestic Theatre on Friday, 12 March 2027, before officially opening on Monday, 12 April. Tickets are expected to go on sale in September, while casting for the production, including the performer who will inherit Prince’s famous role as The Kid, has yet to be announced.
The Broadway announcement came 42 years after the original film premiered in 1984, transforming Prince from an established recording artist into an international cultural phenomenon.
Set in Minneapolis during the rise of music television, PURPLE RAIN follows The Kid, a charismatic young musician who appears destined for stardom. His ambitions are threatened, however, by a troubled home life, tensions within his band, a professional rivalry and a developing romance.
The stage production will feature more than 20 songs from Prince’s catalogue, including When Doves Cry, I Would Die 4 U, Take Me with U, The Beautiful Ones and the title track, Purple Rain.
PURPLE RAIN arrives on Broadway after completing a developmental engagement in Prince’s hometown of Minneapolis. That production played at Hennepin Arts’ State Theatre from 16 October to 23 November 2025, giving the creative team an opportunity to test the ambitious adaptation before live audiences.
The Broadway version will arrive with a significantly revised creative team.
Tony Award nominee Saheem Ali, whose credits include BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB and FAT HAM, will direct the New York production. He replaces Lileana Blain-Cruz, who directed the Minneapolis engagement.
Playwright and screenwriter Peter Duchan, best known for writing the book for DOGFIGHT, has taken over the musical’s book. The earlier version featured a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.
“Prince was an icon and PURPLE RAIN is iconic,” Ali said.
The director recalled watching the film as a teenager in Kenya and said its music had remained with him ever since. Ali said the team’s goal was not simply to preserve Prince’s legacy, but to make the artist’s music feel immediate and alive for audiences discovering it for the first time.
Tony Award winner Jason Michael Webb will lead the production’s music team, overseeing music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations. Webb currently serves as music director of MJ THE MUSICAL and previously received a Special Tony Award for his work on CHOIR BOY.
Emmy Award-winning choreographer Ebony Williams will continue with the production after working on its Minneapolis premiere. Her credits include SNEAKERELLA, JAGGED LITTLE PILL and additional choreography for Beyoncé’s RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR.
Two musicians with direct connections to Prince will also help guide the Broadway production.
Bobby Z, who played drums with Prince’s band The Revolution and appeared in the original PURPLE RAIN film, will serve as a Prince music adviser alongside Morris Hayes. Hayes was a member of the New Power Generation for almost two decades and served as Prince’s musical director for several years.
Their involvement is expected to help the production preserve the distinctive sound, musical instincts and performance energy that defined Prince’s work.
Bobby Z previously recalled that Prince had been fascinated by musical theatre and inspired by shows including RENT and HAMILTON. Although he recognised that creating a stage musical required a different form of storytelling, Prince had reportedly expressed enthusiasm about adapting one of his projects for the theatre.
That history has given the PURPLE RAIN musical particular significance. Rather than functioning solely as a posthumous catalogue production, those involved believe the adaptation reflects an idea that was already within Prince’s creative world.
Released in July 1984, the original PURPLE RAIN film starred Prince as The Kid, a rising musician attempting to escape a turbulent family environment while competing in the Minneapolis club scene. The film earned close to US$100 million worldwide and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.
Its soundtrack became one of the defining albums of the decade. PURPLE RAIN spent 24 weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, earned two Grammy Awards and has been certified 13-times platinum in the United States. More than four decades later, the album continues to attract new listeners and recently returned to the Billboard 200.
The Broadway production will also feature scenic design by David Zinn, costumes by Montana Levi Blanco, lighting by Justin Townsend, sound design by Gareth Owen, and video and projection design by Nathan Amzi and Joe Ransom.
With one of popular music’s most recognisable catalogues, a newly assembled creative team and two of Prince’s closest musical collaborators helping to protect the integrity of his sound, PURPLE RAIN is positioning itself as one of Broadway’s most closely watched arrivals of 2027.
Previews begin at the Majestic Theatre on 12 March 2027, with opening night scheduled for 12 April.
