J. Hud set for Oprah-backed ‘Color Purple’

Jennifer Hudson is finally headed for Broadway.

It was announced Friday that J. Hud will make her debut there next fall, in a revival of The Color Purple that premiered at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory. That company has earned acclaim for bare-bones productions of big-time American musicals — as has the production’s director, John Doyle, known for his minimalist stagings of Stephen Sondheim classics such as Company and Sweeney Todd.

Hudson will play Shug Avery, another sexy entertainer — albeit one who has a dark past and has fallen on hard times. She finds an unlikely friend in Celie, the wife of her old lover and Purple‘s heroine.

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