Cynthia Onyedinmanasu Chinasaokwu Erivo (born 8 January 1987) is an English actress, singer, and songwriter.
She is known for her performance as Celie in the Broadway revival of The Color Purple, for which she won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, and the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program, the latter two she shared with the rest of the cast.
Erivo ventured into films in 2018, with roles in the heist film Widows and the thriller Bad Times at the El Royale. In 2019, she portrayed abolitionist Harriet Tubman in the biopic Harriet, for which she earned nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
‘The Color Purple’ Review: In Its Fifth Major Iteration, The Classic Alice Walker Story Becomes A Movie Musical To Remember
deadline.comAlice Walker started the phenomenon with her 1982 Pulitizer Prize winning book, and three years later Steven Spielberg turned it into a movie that won 11 Oscar nominations.
In 2005 it took on new life as a Broadway musical, and in 2015 that musical got a Tony and Grammy winning revival. Along the way it made big film and stage stars out of Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Cynthia Erivo, Danielle Brooks, and Fantasia Barrino, the latter now making her feature film starring debut as Celie in the new film version of the musical she starred in 18 years ago on Broadway.
The Color Purple is indestructible, and that is also a good word to describe director Blitz Bazawule‘s and screenwriter Marcus Gardley’s take that breathes exciting life into the story for new and older generations, but also to quote an original song from this film really finds a way to “Keep It Movin’ ” .
Musicals have gone through a tough time recently. Broadway hits like Cats and Dear Evan Hansen fizzled on screen. Perhaps that is why Warner Bros.
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