Jennifer Hudson to debut on Broadway in a new version of ‘The Color Purple’

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Jennifer Hudson will make her Broadway debut in the fall when the musical “The Color Purple” returns.

The Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe winner will play Shug Avery, a sultry blues singer, in the production directed and designed by John Doyle, who received a director’s Tony in 2006 for his own Broadway debut, “Sweeney Todd.”

It’s Hudson’s first musical theatre role since her award-winning turn in the 2006 film “Dreamgirls.” Further casting and a specific theatre were not announced in a statement released Friday by the show’s publicists.

Doyle opened his production of “The Color Purple” in 2013 in London at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Music and lyrics are by Grammy winners Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray.

Under the direction of Gary Griffin, the adaptation of the Alice Walker novel played 910 regular performances on Broadway from 2005 through early 2008 with Elisabeth Withers-Mendes as the original Shug.

Also already told on film, the story is set in rural Georgia as it follows a different character, Celie, through a life of adversity and, ultimately, love.