For Colored Girls
Each woman is represented by a color: Jo Bradmore represents red, Tangie Adrose represents orange, Yasmine represents yellow, Juanita Sims represents green, Kelly Watkins represents blue, Nyla Adrose represents purple, and Crystal Wallace represents brown. Additionally, the characters of Alice Adrose, who represents white, and Gilda, who does not represent a color, were made specifically for the film.
The film opens with the nine main characters reciting a poem of their inner thoughts ("Dark Phrases"). Kelly arrives at Tangie's brownstone to see Crystal about the safety of her children. At that time, Juanita arrives to leave her lover, Frank, a potted plant and telling him that she is breaking off their affair ("No Assistance"). Kelly attempts to speak with Crystal's children on how they ended up in the hospital, but is unsuccessful when Crystal's alcoholic boyfriend, Beau Willie, kicks her out. Crystal's nosy neighbor and apartment manager, Gilda, informs Kelly of Crystal's situation ("A Night with Beau Willie Brown") and reveals she was the one who called her. Meanwhile, Alice, Tangie's mother, shows up to beseech Tangie for money, but gets rebuffed instead.
Alice goes out to raise money, and encounters Yasmine, who gives her a little money. Yasmine is boasting to the girls in her dance class about Bill, a man she met on the subway, and agrees to a date, despite her initial hesitance. One of Yasmine's dance students, Nyla, is talking with the girls about her graduation night and losing her virginity ("Graduation Nite"), and later begins to vomit.
Juanita is waiting in Jo's office at Robe Rouge, a fictional magazine company. Crystal shows up for work, having been running late and informs Jo that her 9 o'clock appointment has arrived, despite it already being 10 o'clock. Juanita is then allowed in to interest Jo in giving some money to a non-profit organization that specializes in women's health care, but is rudely rebuffed.
Kelly is with Donald, her partner, at the gynecologist, who informs Kelly that she cannot have children due to scarring in her fallopian tubes caused by an untreated STD. So, Kelly runs off without an explanation. Juanita is at the hospital giving advice on safe sex to women when Frank comes along to ask for forgiveness, but Juanita refuses to give in to his advances. Tangie, who works as a bartender, finds a married man on business and offers to show him a "good time." That same night, Crystal implores Beau Willie to stop drinking, while he only cares about marrying her to increase his welfare benefits. At a restaurant, Jo leaves a voice message on her husband's, Carl, phone, imploring him to call her.
At that same restaurant, Yasmine and Bill have a date night together, recalling a story about her love for Latin dances ("Now I Love Somebody More Than"). Alice comes home to her apartment and it's revealed that Nyla is Alice's daughter and Tangie's sister. Alice gives Nyla the feeble amount of money she made, under the belief that it's for Nyla's college application fees. Meanwhile, Yasmine is walking home from her date with Bill, explaining that she loved dance more than anything until she met Bill ("Now I Love Somebody More Than" cont.).
Tangie takes the married man home with her to sleep with him, but angrily kicks him out after she learns that he thought she was a prostitute. Nyla shows up to ask Tangie for money, explaining that she needs it for college, but Tangie is not fooled. She then deduces that Nyla is pregnant, but Nyla denies this. Tangie relishes in the fact that Nyla isn't so perfect after all and that Alice will hate her the way she hates Tangie. She then tells her about the time she got pregnant and reveals where to find a back-alley abortionist.
Jo waits impatiently for Carl to return home and it's then revealed that Carl was the man Donald had arrested earlier. The couple then get into an argument about Carl investing into a failed company with Jo's money, which Carl did because he felt emasculated as a man, who is not providing and forfeiting his right to do anything in favor of submitting to Jo's will. Donald returns to his and Kelly's apartment where Kelly then reveals how she got her STD. She explains that long before she was married, she and two of her friends had been seeing the same man and all contracted a disease from him ("Pyramid"). Despite this, Donald reveals that he still loves Kelly regardless of her condition. Juanita drives home to see Frank waiting for her on the stoop. He seduces her into letting him stay at her apartment.
The next day, Jo receives flowers from Carl and calls him to thank him. He reveals that he got tickets to the opera, which he hates, as an apology for last night's argument. During this conversation, he is clearly looking at other men desiringly. Yasmine also receives flowers, from Bill, and is visited by Tangie, who came by to pay the three hundred dollars for Nyla's college fees. She rudely informs Yasmine that Bill only wants to "fuck her," then offers to pay for Nyla's fees, but Yasmine reveals that the dance class is free.
Tangie realizes that Nyla went to see the abortionist, Rose (Macy Gray), who is terrifying, and probably drunk. Nyla's mind completely goes blank during the abortion as Rose tells her of a story about her life in Harlem ("I Used to Live in the World"). Yasmine excitedly invites Bill into her home for dinner. After some light flirting and some drinking, Bill removes his clothing and savagely rapes her. Jo and her husband are at the opera, watching a performance of La Donna in Viola (an Italian, operatic version of "Pyramid"). During the performance, Jo watches as her husband cruises another man.
The next day, Jo informs Crystal that she does not have her list of advertisers in her folder and has a very important meeting soon. Crystal offers to take the train to her building, but Jo tells her that'll waste time and offers to drive her there in her limo. Seeing the male driver in the car, Beau Willie believes Crystal is having an affair and the abuse begins, which can be heard in Gilda's house as she watches the kids. She tries to calm their fears by telling them a story about how she met her first husband ("Toussaint").
Beau Willie takes the children from Gilda's to show that he can be a good father and asks Crystal to marry him once again. After she refuses, Beau Willie becomes violent and dangles the children over the fifth-story window, giving Crystal an ultimatum. Gilda frantically runs out into the street and screams for help as Jo, Juanita and several on-lookers witness Beau Willie drop the children to their death ("A Night with Beau Willie Brown" cont.).
Donald interrogates Yasmine at the hospital on her rape, where he informs her that it'll be difficult to press charges as she tells him that women can be raped anywhere by anyone ("Latent Rapists"). At the same hospital, Alice frantically comes in search of Nyla, who passed out in the streets after her abortion. Nyla is being interrogated by Renee and Kelly, and gives them and Alice a vivid detail of her abortion ("Abortion Cycle #1"). Kelly leaves the room to find Crystal screaming in horror at the realization of her children's brutal murder as she is being comforted by Gilda, Jo and Juanita. After being informed of the situation and recognizing Crystal, Kelly becomes visibly upset.
Alice confronts Tangie in her apartment and after a physical altercation, they reveal to each other that Tangie was raped by her grandfather, Alice's father, causing Alice to take her to the abortionist where Alice supervised her, whereas Nyla was unsupervised. Alice reveals that her father took her virginity and was given to a white man at fifteen to have children. All these events explained why Tangie is the way she is ("One" cont.). After kicking Alice out of her apartment, Gilda comes into her house to put ice on the bruise on Tangie's face. She explains that Tangie and mother make a lot of sense before telling her a detailed account of Tangie's exploits ("One" cont.). Tangie believes that Gilda has been snooping again through the wall, but Gilda reveals that she was once like Tangie.
Juanita comes home to find Frank gone and assumes he has left again, but he soon comes home with Chinese food and sees that Juanita is upset, despite trying to appear to be happy and is asked to hold her. Carl comes home to find Jo distraught and reveals what happened with Crystal, stating that she never once knew she was abused and wondering what kind of person she was. Jo and Carl embrace as she sobs into his shoulder. Alice and Nyla return to their apartment where Alice tells her to pray for forgiveness. As Nyla prays, Alice attempts to exorcise her with ashes and hot oil, hurting Nyla. Nyla freaks out, fights off Alice and then runs away to Yasmine's apartment, hoping to find some comfort. However, Yasmine is too traumatized from her rape to answer the door, so Nyla leaves.
Kelly is waiting outside the brownstone as Crystal comes out with a pail and a brush to wash away the blood of her children. Kelly walks up to her and Crystal asks if she's awake, to which Kelly, who is speechless, nods her head. Crystal comments that she does not feel awake and thinks that this is what death must feel like. Nyla passes by and Kelly takes her into Crystal's apartment to wash her up. Hearing Tangie bring in yet another suitor to her apartment, Nyla confronts her. Tangie kicks her suitor out after he asks her to invite Nyla for a threesome. Tangie and Nyla hash out their problems, before Tangie reveals that her life is complicated and she's still learning from her mistakes ("No More Love Poems #4"). Afterwards, Tangie and Nyla reconcile.
Yasmine is practicing an interpretive dance ("Sechita") as Kelly discovers that Crystal has swallowed an entire bottle of pills. Crystal is taken to the hospital as Yasmine is visited by Donald, who has informed her that Bill has been murdered after attempting to rape another woman. She goes into the morgue to look at his body one last time, before slapping him and then leaving. Juanita informs Kelly, Nyla, Tangie and Gilda that the doctors pumped Crystal's stomach and can see visitors as soon as she stabilizes.
That night, Kelly is unable to sleep, feeling guilty for not taking Crystal's children away sooner because she had to see the doctor about her infertility. Donald reassures her that one thing has nothing to do with the other. Juanita comes home with a birthday cake for Frank, only to find that he is not home and his clothes are gone. Juanita vents her frustration to her women's health class ("Somebody Almost Walked Off Wid Alla My Stuff") as Crystal is released from the hospital and goes into therapy. Jo gives Juanita a check for her non-profit organization, Beau Willie is sent to jail, and Nyla returns to dance class with Yasmine.
Tangie knocks on Crystal's door to invite her to Nyla's going away party. Crystal initially declines, but says she'll go if she feels up to it. Tangie begrudgingly invites Gilda, both finally having an unspoken, mutual respect for each other. Juanita finally breaks things off with Frank for good ("No More Love Poems #1"). Gilda comes by Crystal's apartment to see if she's eaten, which she hasn't. Crystal is still wondering how Beau Willie could do such a thing, but Gilda tells her that she also needs to take responsibility for not leaving Beau Willie sooner, and tells her that she needs to get out of the apartment.
Jo confronts Carl on his homosexuality, which he angrily denies at first but Jo tells him that she was not oblivious to the way Carl looks at other men. After venting his frustrations over Jo's controlling nature, he then admits that he has been sleeping with other men and tells her that he's sorry. Jo, however, tells him that she is not accepting his apology, having heard him apologize many times before ("Sorry"). Jo then reveals that she is HIV-positive from Carl's exploits and tells Carl to leave when she gets back home.
At Nyla's going away party, all the women gather to celebrate. Alice arrives under Tangie's invitation to give Nyla a few presents and tells Nyla she's proud of her. She then leaves to let Nyla and Tangie enjoy their night together. Jo and Juanita have a conversation on the rooftop about HIV, where Juanita assures Jo that HIV is not a death sentence. The other women come out to join them, including Crystal, as the women talk about the value of their love ("My Love Is Too") and share their experiences with men's apologies ("Sorry" cont.).
Crystal tells everyone that she was missing something in her life and the women reveal the hurt and pain they've gone through in their lives, before coming together to embrace Crystal and each other ("A Laying on of Hands") and move forward with their lives.
romantic