Jennifer Hudson to Star as ‘Shug Avery’ in Oprah Winfrey-Produced ‘The Color Purple’ Revival on Broadway

Jennifer Hudson performs a medley of songs during the 2014 BET Awards in Los Angeles
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”.

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