The 2016 Tony nominations dropped Tuesday morning, and one star’s name was conspicuously absent from the list: Jennifer Hudson, who’s earned laudatory reviews for her turn as Shug Avery in the revival of The Color Purple that opened on Broadway in December.
This is Hudson’s first Broadway role, and some thought she was bound for a Tony nod. When producers announced in April that Heather Headley will replace Hudson when Hudson’s six-month contract expires on Sunday, the New York Times called the timing “a bit awkward.” Hudson would be eligible for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical category, but she’s leaving in the short window after officials announce the nominees and before a good number of voters have sent in their picks. If she had been nominated, voters would have had only eight chances to see her perform.
She didn’t get the nod, and in a tweet on Tuesday morning, which Hudson has since deleted, she said she expected as much:
Two of Hudson’s Color Purple co-stars, Cynthia Erivo and Orange Is the New Black’s Danielle Brooks, were nominated in the leading and featured actress categories, respectively. Erivo plays the main role of Celie, and Brooks is cast as Sofia, the character Oprah Winfrey played in the 1985 film adaptation of Alice Walker’s book. Hudson congratulated both of them in an Instagram post on Tuesday afternoon. The show as a whole got nominated for Best Revival of a Musical—and in the Tony website’s description of the production, Hudson is the lede: “Jennifer Hudson makes her Broadway debut as the sultry Shug Avery in a new production of the joyous musical based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning story of enduring love and triumph over adversity.”
Both the press and the show’s producers have foregrounded Hudson’s involvement in the production, even though her role is smaller than Erivo’s. Before it offers any information about the show’s plot or history, The Color Purple’s “About the Show” page starts with a list of Hudson’s bona fides. Hudson has been the subject of solo features about the show and often gets first billing in review headlines, despite the fact that she plays a smaller role than that of Erivo, who doesn’t have near as much name recognition as the former American Idol star.
So it makes sense that The Color Purple’s producers would have cast Hudson—a well-loved talent who’s never performed on Broadway before—to generate buzz and draw in new audiences. A six-month contract could mean that, after Hudson’s celebrity gave the production a burst of momentum, the producers could switch her out for a star with lesser financial demands.
Headley is no second-rate schlub: She won a Tony as the title character in Aida in 2000 and originated the role of Nala in The Lion King in 1997. But she’s almost certainly cheaper to cast in a featured role than Hudson. There’s no question that Hudson is a breathtaking talent who brings more than just star power to a Broadway role, and it’s possible that her Tony snub was unjustified. From the outside, it sure seems like the show’s short-lived, full-throated deployment of Hudson’s fame isn’t stunt casting—it’s just business.
