The OP is referring to Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child, who played Shug in the first national tour.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
I honestly don't remember much of that production. I saw the National Tour when it first opened in Chicago and was bored out of my wits. Something magical happened to the show when I saw it many years later at the Menier Chocolate Factory.
I don't remember anything about her performance. I'm sure she was good because I don't remember her being bad. (I realize that was a phenomenal analysis) I can't say that Jennifer Hudson's performance will stick with me forever other than the fact that "I saw Jennifer Hudson live".
BroadwayPeasent said: "PThespian said: "I can't tell if you're joking or not.
Michelle Williams = Blackbird
Heather Headley = The Color Purple (which, by the way, has an all black cast)
WOW some people are very thick. Yes Destiny's Child Michelle Williams that did the national tour. A quick GOOGLE search would have been very EASY.
Easy now. In PThespian's defense I had to pause before I realized which Michelle Williams we were talking about and not for nothing it took me a minute. Sidebar, I remember this particular Michelle Williams was in Aida (till this day I regret missing Heather Headley) and I actually waited until she left to see it. I caught it with Deborah Cox and she was fantastic.
I thought she was swell. Her voice and look are so unconventional... she came off as enigmatic in the best kind of way. Unique. It made sense she was a "star." Jennifer Hudson came off as exactly what you'd expect from a blues-type singer of the period. Michelle Williams felt like a mysterious woman. I found her performance very memorable.
Sorry. It's hard to articulate. Haha. I did my best.