Give thanks this morning, children of Broadway, and throw in a hearty hallelujah. 'The Color Purple' has been born again, and its conversion is a glory to behold...The current version is a slim, fleet-footed beauty, simply attired and beguilingly modest. Don't be deceived, though, by its air of humility. There's a deep wealth of power within its restraint...it allows audiences to zero in on a show's musical and emotional essence, while seeming to place narrative control directly in the hands of the performers...Ms. Hudson radiates a lush, supple stage presence that is echoed by her velvet voice...But the greatest joy of all, at least for longtime believers in theater mythology, is the ascendancy of Ms. Erivo...Celie undergoes a drastic metamorphosis from battered, invisible wife to determined, self-reliant businesswoman. Ms. Erivo escorts us through these transformations with a subtle but tensile performance that parallels her character's evolution. Like the rest of the show, she never oversells herself; she asks us politely but compellingly to listen...