Key Takeaways
- Jennifer Hudson has joined the producing team for a reimagined Broadway revival of Dreamgirls, nearly 20 years after her Oscar-winning turn as Effie White.
- Hudson is sitting in on auditions for the next Effie as director and choreographer Camille A. Brown shapes the new production.
- Calling this chapter “my turn,” Hudson is also creating an album inspired by her son and Common that will center her own experiences and words.
Jennifer Hudson is returning to the role that changed her life—only now, she is working behind the curtain. Nearly 20 years after storming the screen as Effie White in Dreamgirls, Hudson has joined the producing team for a reimagined Broadway revival directed and choreographed by Camille A. Brown.
The full-circle assignment has Hudson sitting in on auditions as the production searches for its next Effie. She knows better than most what could be waiting on the other side of that casting decision.
Hudson reportedly beat out roughly 800 hopefuls for the 2006 movie, then delivered a performance of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” that instantly moved her beyond her reality-show beginnings.
Dreamgirls was Hudson’s first movie, arriving two years after her shocking seventh-place elimination from Season 3 of American Idol. By the end of awards season, the former Disney cruise performer had won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress at 25, becoming the category’s youngest Black winner at the time.
She later completed the rare EGOT sweep, starred as Aretha Franklin in Respect and launched The Jennifer Hudson Show, which has collected 18 Daytime Emmy nominations since premiering in 2022.
Now, Hudson is treating the Broadway revival as part of a wider personal reset. “This is the chapter of … putting myself first,” she told Variety. With her son, David Otunga Jr., now 17, the singer said she has begun thinking about how to use the time that will come with becoming an empty nester.
“I’ve crossed every t, dotted every i,” she said. “But what does it feel like if you take up more space for yourself?”
Her new mantra cuts straight to the point: “It’s my turn now.”
That shift is also carrying into Hudson’s music. She is working on an untitled album inspired by her son and her partner, Common, with plans to put more of her own experiences into the material. “I only write when I have something I really want to say, and it’s my time for my voice,” she said.
Hudson credited both Franklin and Carole King with giving her the same lasting advice: use that voice. “When I use my voice this time,” she added, “it’s going to be with my words.”
