Jennifer Hudson is coming to Broadway! The singer is gearing up to take the stage as “Celie” “Shug Avery” in the Oprah-produced revival of ‘The Color Purple’.
via NY Post:
This “Color Purple” comes from London’s Menier Chocolate Factory, which specializes in stripping down big-budget Broadway shows, giving them an emotional punch they lacked the first time around.
John Doyle did the paring, as he did for several Sondheim revivals in New York, and his 2013 production received decent reviews.
The show is “so lithe and muscular that at first it’s hard to detect even remnants of the big, bloated show that ‘The Color Purple’ once was,” Ben Brantley wrote in the Times. “This was a second date made in heaven.”
Even British critics who reached for the sick bag when the show got mired in the treacly couldn’t resist full-throttle ballads and gospel numbers that “almost blow the roof off the theater,” as the Daily Telegraph put it.
Hudson has been on the hunt for a Broadway show for several years. Sources say Oprah called her personally and asked her to join the production.
Hudson will play Celie, who survives abuse, poverty and racism to become a successful seamstress and pants designer. LaChanze won a Tony in the role in 2006.
The original, $10 million production that played the Broadway Theatre caused a media circus. On opening night, Oprah ended her 16-year-old feud with David Letterman and walked the red carpet with him.
We’ll definitely be going to check this out. We think Jennifer is a perfect fit for Broadway, don’t you?
Update: Jennifer announced herself that she’ll be playing “Shug Avery”.
So excited to make my Broadway debut this fall as Shug Avery in the revival of #TheColorPurple! @Oprah @ssandersprods http://t.co/8yXY1EWYwv
— Jennifer Hudson (@IAMJHUD) January 9, 2015
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