graduate, had a few things going for her:
a successful song-writing career, a life-
long love of Motown and a fierce dedica-
tion to the themes of the Alice Walker
novel — along with the self-confidence
to try anything.
"When I decide to do something, I'll
go ahead and do it, and I don't think
about how it can go wrong:' Willis says.
"In the long term, it's exhilarating, and
you don't have to make compromises in
your work — but you certainly have the
potential to go through your life a lot
poorer."
'When a producer hires you to write
for a musical, the amount of money you
make is dependent on the success of the
show, she explains.
-The Color Purple is likely to keep
Willis fed and clothed for many years.
Based on Walker's Pulitzer Prize-win-
ning novel, the book for the musical was
written by playwright Marsha Norman,
whose work in drama has earned both a
Pulitzer Prize and a Tony. The show's
strongest financial backing comes from
media superstar Oprah Winfrey.
So far, The Color Purple is sold out
-
through October 2006.
"The theater holds 1,800 people, and
everyone seems to walk out satisfied,"
Willis says. "It's amazing standing in the
lobby. There's a wave of emotion that
just carries them out."

Motown Baby
Of Willis' many careers, songwriting
came first.
"Growing up, I worshipped the radio. I
discovered WJLB and other black sta-
tions before there was even Motown: .
Willis says. "I saw every Motown revue
at the Fox Theatre.
"But I don't read, write or play music,
and I never gave thought to being a

.musician myself."
Instead, she earned a bachelor's
degree in journalism, with a minor in
advertising, at the University of
Wisconsin. Then she talked her way into
a secretarial job with Columbia/Epic
Records in New York City, even though
she could not type. In about a month,
she was promoted to junior copywriter.
Willis recorded an album of her own
songs under the Columbia/Epic label in
1974. ("I took them to my boss in adver-
tising, and he liked them.")
Her first big hit was "September," per-
formed by Earth, Wind and Fire. She
shared a Grammy Award for the sound-
track to Beverly Hills Cop and was nomi-
nated for an Emmy for the theme song
to television's Friends, which she co-
wrote with Michael Skloff.
For a few years, songwriting was fun,
Willis says, but eventually it became just
a process of churning out more of the
same thing she'd done before.
"I began a conscious quest to change
my life starting around 1981. Design was
always such a big part of my life. When I
was in high school, design and rhythm
were the two things that kept me alive."
In the 1980s, now living in suburban
Los Angeles, she emerged as "Bubbles
the Artist:' building a career with bright-
colored paintings, collages and construc-
tions, all done in a tongue-in-cheek
pseudo primitive style. Moving into
cyberspace in the 1990s, she created vir-
tual worlds and Web narratives, consult-
ing for America Online, Microsoft,
Disney and other entertainment and
technology companies.
Meanwhile, she was perfecting her
own personal style. Her kitsch-filled
home has been featured in lifestyle and
architectural magazines; . she enjoys retro
clothes and groovy parties; her unique

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hairstyle, cropped on one side and
shoulder-length on the other, has
inspired a character in friend Lily
Tomlin's The Search for Intelligent Life in
the Universe.
- "I have a tremendous love and appre-
ciation for the past," Willis says."It's all
rolled into the future."
Relatives still in metro Detroit include
her brother and sister-in-law, Kent and
Barbara Willis; aunt and uncle Irene and
Arnold Citron, all of West Bloomfield;
aunt Ann Benderoff of Farmington Hills;
and many cousins, nieces and nephews.
Her parents, Rose and Nate Willis, are
deceased.
Detroit — the Institute of Arts, the Fox
Theatre, sandwiches at Darbys and
Frederick's delis, Hebrew school at
Congregation Beth Aaron — continues to
haunt her imagination.
"The pink and blue paint job at
Mumford is my prime influence,"Willis
says. "I have a pink house with a blue
driveway; I have a pink car and a blue car."
"I have the exact same habits I had in
high school, but I do it all in a bigger way."

Broadway Bound
Writing the songs for The Color Purple
was truly a cooperative project, Willis
says. The three songwriters spent hours
brainstorming, each contributing both
words and music.
"A lot of people just write lyrics, oth-
ers just write music, but, for me, that's
like saying, `Use your right arm but your
left has to remain tied up:" she says.
"The Friends theme was probably the
last thing I did where I agreed to do just
one part. I wrote the lyrics."
Writing for a Broadway musical is
very different from writing stand-alone
songs, she discovered.
"In a regular song, you have to accom-

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The Color Purple is playing at
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Call (212) 239-6200 or visit
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more about Allee Willis, see her
Web site, www.alleewillis.com .

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plish a lot less. If you listen to the lyrics,
there's a lot of.repetition. In a theater
song, you have to keep moving."
The three songwriters, already friends
before beginning The Color Purple,
enjoyed working together — which was
a good thing, considering the project
took more than a year to complete. "You
says.
tweak it and tweak
"Sometimes it's exasperating, like when
you have to throw out six months of
work."
Is another Broadway project in the
works?
"This is the first time in my life I
haven't planned out my next move," she
says. "Now I think I'll sit out a month or
two and see."
"I certainly hope there's another musi-
cal but wouldn't want to do one unless it
has the broad spiritual effect I feel this
does. The Color Purple is not just a good
story, but an important story."
"I see a lot of my friends extremely
bored with their lives because they've
been doing the sane thing for 30 years:'
Willis says. "I'm the type of person who
says, `I have a hit record? Good, now I
want to paint:
•
"What I say is: If you don't like your
life, get up off your a— and change
it." ❑

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December 29 • 2005

47