An emotional Oprah Winfrey and the cast of The Color Purple spoke about the transformative power of the upcoming film at its first public screening, getting spiritual as they cited its divine effect on their lives.

“For every one of us up here, it is a story of, ‘look at what God has done,'” said Winfrey, who wore a lilac sequined outfit in a nod to the musical, on the panel after the showing at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills on Thursday night.

Winfrey, a producer on the musical with Scott Sanders and an Oscar nominee for her role as Sophia in Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film adaptation, said the Alice Walker book the films are based on helped her comprehend the sexual abuse she endured as a child.

“Until that time, I didn’t know there was language for what had happened to me,” she told the...