Jennifer Hudson will give Broadway a boost of star power this fall when she makes her stage debut in “The Color Purple.”
Oprah Winfrey, who produced the show in 2005, will be backing this revival, along with her theatrical business partner Scott Sanders.
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.
Reviews were mixed, but with the mighty Oprah machine behind it, ticket sales were strong.
I didn’t care for the show the first time I saw it. Female empowerment is fine for daytime television, but it’s flesh-crawling in a musical.
But when I went back to “The Color Purple” to see the brilliant Fantasia, my cynicism melted. I, along with everyone else in the theater, was on my feet cheering Celie’s indomitable spirit.
Had they been selling her pants in the lobby, I would have bought a pair.
I’ve also come to appreciate the score, by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray. It’s an irresistible blend of blues, pop, gospel and R&B. “What About Love?” — a gorgeous duet between Celie (LaChanze) and her friend Shug (Elisabeth Withers) — regularly winds up on my iPod’s 25 most-played tunes.
I’ll be looking forward to hearing Hudson “blow the roof” off whatever theater “The Color Purple” winds up in this fall.
You can see a bootleg of Fantasia doing it here: