‘The World According to Allee Willis’ Draws a Connection Between ‘Friends’ and ‘The Color Purple’

One of the best things about the late great songwriter Allee Willis is that anyone who considers themselves a fan of hers can still be hit by one of her accomplishments by surprise. Such is the crux of the new documentary released by Magnolia Pictures titled “The World According to Allee Willis.”

Though the quirky creative was hard to miss in a crowd, with her signature haircut and colorful outfits, Willis is somewhat of a hidden figure among the world of music and film, colloquially referred to as the white woman who co-wrote Earth, Wind, and Fire’s eternal hit “September,” yet somehow worked on “I’ll Be There for You” by The Rembrandts too, also known as the theme song for “Friends.”

That said, Willis’s two Grammy Awards actually come from the original music she wrote for stage and screen. In the exclusive clip above from “The World According to Allee Willis,” she and colleagues Brenda Russell and Stephen Bray retell how they were such a longshot for the job of writing the music and lyrics for the musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s seminal novel “The Color Purple” that Willis had to ask Broadway producer Scott Sanders to finally consider them after he kept badgering her to recommend other songwriters he should hire.

To be fair, not a single one of them had any experience writing for a stage musical. Maybe the closest experience Willis has was her Grammy-winning work on the “Beverly Hills Cop” soundtrack. But as soon as they were confirmed to compete for the job as a group, the songwriters bought books on how to best fulfill the task. “We just learned ‘What are the rules? What does the audience expect?,” said Russell. “Allee being Allee said ‘Ok let’s make it really earthy and rootsy,’” said Bray.

Ultimately, the trio would prevail over dozens of the top songwriters also vying for the job, and eventually win the Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album in 2016 for “The Color Purple” Broadway revival that introduced America to “Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo.

But, as one will see when watching the documentary, the insane breadth of music Willis wrote was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of her accomplishments that warrant her receiving the cinematic treatment from director Alexis Spraic.

“The World According to Allee Willis,” released by Magnolia Pictures, is now in select theaters and will be available to rent on demand starting on Friday, November 22.