Jennifer Hudson, Cynthia Erivo Reunite for ‘The Color Purple’ Duet

Nearly 10 years after Jennifer Hudson and Cynthia Erivo co-starred in the Broadway production of The Color Purple, the powerhouse vocalists sang a soulful duet during a Wednesday episode of the Jennifer Hudson Show. The two musicians riffed off each other as they sang, “What About Love,” a climatic song about a forbidden romance featured at the end of the production’s first act.

Hudson praised Erivo’s breakout performance as Celie in The Color Purple during the Wednesday taping, adding she performed with bravura every night and earned her flowers. As the Wicked star reflected on her Broadway run as Celie, she got emotional. While performing in a small theater in London, a producer approached her and asked if she would like to join the Broadway production. Erivo said she didn’t believe the producer until she had a plane ticket in her hand.

“It’s been a really long journey and that young lady there had no idea about what was in front of her,” Erivo told Hudson, about her role on The Color Purple. “She was trying to get through every show.”

The Color Purple Broadway production draws inspiration from Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name and the Steven Spielberg 1985 film adaptation that follows Celie’s life from a distressed child to a self-actualized adult. Along the way, viewers meets honky-tonk singer Shug, played by Hudson, who not only develops a budding romance with Celie, but helps her discover her inner strength. The coming-of-age story was also adapted into a musical in December 2023.

In Wicked, Erivo stars as Elphaba alongside Ariana Grande’s Glinda, Jonathan Bailey’s Fiyero, and Michelle Yeoh’s Madame Morrible.