Grammy-winner Jon Batiste to make film acting debut in ‘The Color Purple’ musical
nypost.comtook home five Grammys Awards earlier this month, will make his big-screen acting debut in the upcoming musical remake of “The Color Purple.”The 35-year-old musician — who also serves as musical director and bandleader for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” — is set to play Grady, the husband of sexy blues singer Shug Avery, a role previously announced will be filled by 51-year-old Taraji P.
Henson (“Hidden Figures,” “Empire”). Grady was played by Bennet Guillory, 75, in the Academy Award-nominated 1985 film.Oscar-winner Batiste won the 2022 Grammys Album of the Year for “We Are” and topped the awards nominees this year with 11 nods.The new version of “The Color Purple” — a story based on the novel by Alice Walker — was first adapted for Broadway in 2005 and later revived as a 2015 Broadway musical starring Cynthia Erivo (“Harriet”) and Jennifer Hudson (“Dreamgirls”).
It will be produced by Oprah Winfrey, Scott Sanders, Quincy Jones and Steven Spielberg, who directed and produced the earlier film.
Other performers already cast include Danielle Brooks, H.E.R., Halle Bailey, Aunjanue Ellis, Corey Hawkins, Fantasia Barrino, Ciara, Louis Gosset Jr., David Alan Grier and Colman Domingo.
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