Danielle Brooks to make Broadway debut in The Color Purple

Actress Danielle Brooks will make her Broadway debut in The Color Purple.

The Orange Is the New Black star will play Miss Sofia in the production, opposite Jennifer Hudson.

She tells Essence.com, "(The Color Purple) was actually the first Broadway show that I saw 10 years ago, and to now get to step into the part... my heart flutters every time I think about it."

TV mogul/actress Oprah Winfrey played the role in the 1985 Steven Spielberg film and has signed on as a producer of the new stage show.

Brooks continues, "The first thing I did was pray about it, and I just surrendered the same way that Oprah talks about it in her Master Class when she had to surrender for the same part. I said, 'If it's for me, it will be.' And I'm so grateful - I've said that word a million times, but I am - that my will lined up with God's, and here I am."

She adds, "When you're in a career where you hear so many no's, you have to figure that out. You have to find that inner strength within yourself. And that's why (Sofia) means so much. She's such a bold woman, such a goddess, such a stoic character, and I'm excited to take this journey."

The musical, which is based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, will premiere at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater in November (15).