This new, rousing version of “The Color Purple” based on the 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker is not a remake of the 1985 film directed by Steven Spielberg. This new “The Color Purple” is based on the much-revived and revered 2005 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical produced by Oprah Winfrey with a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Norman (“night, Mother”) and music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray.

Directed by Grammy-nominated, Ghana-born Blitz Bazawule (“The Burial of Kojo”), the story once again begins in the Deep South in the early 20th century. We meet the oppressed Celie Harris (Phylicia Pearl Mpasi as a girl, Fantasia Barrino as an adult) – the role memorably played by Whoopi Goldberg in the 1985 film. Celie is a young mother of two children with her sexually abusive father Alfonso (a fine Deon Cole). The Cronus-like Alfonso snatches the children after they are born and takes them away, presumably to kill them. Celie finds comfort in the company of other women.

Her father arranges for Celie to marry the farmer Mister (a powerful turn by Colman Domingo), another abuser who is also attracted to Celie’s younger sister Nettie (Halle Bailey as a girl, Ciara as an adult). After rebuffing her father’s advances Nettie movies in with Celie and Mister. But after fighting off Mister, Nettie is thrown out by him into a storm. The plot will further involve Mister’s son Harpo (Corey Hawkins), who marries the assertive Sofia (Danielle Brooks) and later opens a juke joint that he runs with his girlfriend Squeak (Gabriella Wilson aka H.E.R.). The glamorous Memphis showgirl Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson), who has been Mister’s mistress for years, arrives to live with Celie and Mister and perform at Harpo and Squeak’s club. Celie and Shug find ways to comfort one another.

At its heart, “The Color Purple” remains a testament to the oppression of Black women and the many ways that they have learned to endure their fate, overcome it and triumph over it. It is a tale of pain, hardship, inequality, reconciliation and transcendence. What makes this version different is that it also reminds us of the unique power of music to lift us up and help us to endure such pain and tribulation.

The rich tradition of musicals with Black casts goes back to such films as King Vidor’s early talking picture “Hallelujah” (1929), “Stormy Weather” (1943) with Lena Horne, “Cabin in the Sky” (1943) with Ethel Waters, “Carmen Jones” (1954) with Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge and, of course, “Porgy and Bess” (1955) with Sidney Poitier and Dandridge.

This new musical version of “The Color Purple,” which also invokes such acclaimed works as “The Lion King” and “Roots,” is a worthy addition to that list. Jennifer Hudson made her Broadway debut in the role of Shug in the 2015 stage revival, along with the film’s Brooks in the role of Sofia. Henson, who plays Shug in the film, made her singing debut in the 2005 film “Hustle & Flow.” She, too, delivers the goods. Barrino, another one of the film’s vocal prodigies, also played Celie before on the stage. Perhaps ironically, Domingo (“Rustin”), who is having a great year, walks away with the movie’s acting laurels as the film’s banjo-plucking, alpha male villain.

Lushly dark cinematography by award winner Dan Lausten (“Crimson Peak,” “The Shape of Water”) is another plus. Production designer Paul D. Austerberry (“The Shape of Water,” “It Chapter Two”) also adds weight and depth to the film’s look . Produced by Winfrey, Spielberg and the legendary Quincy Jones, this “The Color Purple” deserves to be the audience-pleasing, surprise hit of this holiday season. Push the button, indeed.

(“The Color Purple” contains mature and sexually suggestive material and violence)

“The Color Purple”

Rated PG-13. At the AMC Boston Common, AMC South Bay and suburban theaters. Grade: A-