Back in 2010, Mark Clements arrived in Milwaukee and, in his first act as artistic director, brought something to the Milwaukee Rep’s main stage that oddly it had never seen in its impressive history: a musical.

"We were not a theater that was necessarily known for musicals," Clements noted. "I think that was partly to do with the personal tastes of the previous artistic directors. There was a sense that I don’t think they particularly wanted to do them, so they didn’t. There was also this feeling that we weren’t set up from a cash perspective because musicals are expensive – even a small one. You need a band, you need sound, you need to fill the Powerhouse space, which is a very challenging acoustic in there."

Investing considerably into the space and fighting off the occasional "snobbishness" about a musical in a straight theater, Clements opened his first season with "Cabaret," as made famous over the years by the likes of Harold Prince and Bob Fosse.  

"There were a lot of people who came to see ‘Cabaret’ and were p*ssed off at me for programming it and didn’t like musicals," Clements said. "I don’t think people have stopped talking about that show ever since. It was a good calling card for me. It was my first production here and didn’t do us any harm, did it?"

Several years later, Clements has made it a bit of a tradition to feature a musical, whether it be beloved ("Next to Normal," "Ragtime") or polarizing ("Assassins"), in the Rep’s schedule. 2014 is no different, with the Powerhouse opening up with "The Color Purple," starting Tuesday, Sept. 23 and running through Sunday, Nov. 2.

"Coming over from ‘Ragtime,’ ‘The Color Purple’ was a great way for us to have a powerful story with great music and something with a resonance for now," Clements said.

Based on the classic Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Alice Walker, the Tony and Grammy nominated show focuses on the life and struggles of several black women living in the South in the 1930s. Before the show, Clements had seen the equally lauded Steven Spielberg movie, but he hadn’t seen the Broadway show – something he prefers in the hopes of keeping his own imagination and creativity free and untainted – and he had never read Walker’s original source material.

"It’s a tough novel to read, not in terms of a ‘War and Peace’ kind of way," Clements said. "It’s actually quite a short novel and easy to read quickly, but it’s a novel that’s tough and brutal. And it’s hard to read because, even though she’s a fictitious character, you know she’s emblematic of Alice Walker’s grandmother’s generation."

Much like with Spielberg’s film, some of the novel’s harder, more raw edges have been sanded down for the musical adaptation. However, that doesn’t make putting the production together any easier. It’s still a massive musical, dealing with difficult subject matter – even when sanitized – while spanning several decades and multiple set changes (a total of 35 locations).

Even past productions have struggled with all "The Color Purple" entails. During its original Broadway run back in 2005, The New York Times criticized the musical's "exhaustingly eventful" pace, having to sprint through decades of intricate characters and plotlines in a mere three hours.

"I think what happens sometimes is that you try the show out, and it works really well in the regional theater where it emanates from," Clements said. "Then it’s going to Broadway, and everybody goes, ‘OK, well, now we really have to make it into a Broadway show,’ which kind of leads it into – and I think this happened on ‘Ragtime’ and here – where it gets too big. For example, there’s a sequence at the top of Act Two in Africa, and with Gary Griffin’s production in Broadway, if you look at it on YouTube, it’s like watching ‘The Lion King.’"

Several years later, a London revival adaptation took a shot at Walker’s novel –mercilessly trimming and cutting down on the musical’s script like an over-caffeinated hairdresser. And while the London adaptation certainly brought down the Broadway bloat, Clements noted that those who’d seen it said it went too far in the opposite direction, stripping away too much in the process.

In addition to balancing the tricky story, "The Color Purple" is another in the recently popular long line of stage adaptations from well-known Hollywood properties. Considering the expenses of big Broadway musicals, it makes economic sense to adapt shows already with name recognition, but it’s a trend that has exhausted some musical fans, with "Rocky" and "Ghost" each getting a tuneful treatment (or less than tuneful, judging by some responses). As a fan of the novel "Captain Corelli’s Mandolin," Clements is all too aware of the risks of Hollywood adaptations.

"Yeah, I fall in that (wary) camp a little bit," Clements said. "Some are way better than others and worth doing more than others. There are things where you go, "Leave them alone." I’m always interested in original stories. And then there are things like ‘The Color Purple,’ which actually I think on the whole they’ve done a good job with as a musical entertainment."

Even with all the risks and challenges built into a show like "The Color Purple," however, it’s a show Clements is confident and eager to bring to the Rep’s main stage. Then again, Clements is used to risks and their rewards, namely when it comes to his new run of main house musicals.

"‘Next to Normal’ had such a huge impact on our audience," Clements said. "We were doing a rock musical based on bipolar at Christmas time, which you’d think would be a disaster and actually turned out to be one of the more meaningful things we’ve produced. ‘Assassins’ was the most polarizing show we ever did, full stop – in my time, maybe even longer. It was tough on a lot of people because they didn’t like what they saw up there; you had to look a little close to home."

Clements noted the cast – featuring some veterans from the Broadway and touring versions of the show – is ideal. Meanwhile, on the technical side of things, to seamlessly get through the many scene and location changes with Clements’ goal of constant fluid action, he’s working with the same crew of designers he collaborated with on many past productions, including "Ragtime."

Clements also believes he’s found the right fit for the story, somewhere right in between London’s lean cut and Broadway’s bloated extravaganza.

"There are those moments which, if they’re stripped back too much or too overblown, they’ll expose the show in the wrong way," Clements said. "It’s not necessarily that it’s lean and mean. I think it’s the execution of that, so I’ve been very mindful in my deliberations of the design and the way we tell the story. I know I’m telling the whole Africa episode of the story in a very different way that hasn’t been done before."

It’s all to deliver a show that Clements believes fits exactly in line with what he looks for in his musical picks for the Rep.

"I’m interested in stories that resonate with our community," Clements said. "We live in a city which is still regarded as the most segregated in the United States. Is there a better argument for doing something like ‘The Color Purple’ that looks at that?

"Theater’s a great tool that can be used as a catalyst for positive change. Not everything has to be deep in meaning, but I think it’s good to have plays that reflect the community that we live in and are relevant to that community and the times we’re living in."