NEW YORK (AP) — Tony- and Grammy-winner Heather Headley will replace Jennifer Hudson in Broadway’s current revival of “The Color Purple.”

Hudson, who plays Shug Avery in the musical, will play her last performance on May 8. Headley takes over two days later at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.

Headley’s credits include “The Lion King” and playing the diva in “The Bodyguard” musical in London. Her CDs include “This Is Who I Am,” ”Audience of One” and “Only One In The World.”

The musical is a stage version of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel set in rural Georgia that covers a lifetime of events observed by Celie, a homely, uneducated farm woman whose dreams are repeatedly shattered by the cruelty of males.

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Online: http://colorpurple.com

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