Cynthia Erivo, who received a best actress Academy Award nomination this year for Wicked, will play the title role in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar, which is set to run August 1 to 3. Tony Award-winner Sergio Trujillo will direct and choreograph the production, organizers announced Tuesday.
The casting of Erivo is sure to draw large crowds on the back of Wicked’s runaway box-office success. At the same time, the choice of Erivo — who publicly identifies as “queer” and has been romantically linked to Lena Waithe — could also be seen as a provocation that will likely generate social media chatter and a backlash among devout Christians.
Cynthia Erivo is no stranger to the 1971 musical.
She sang in an all-female album version of Jesus Christ Superstar, titled She Is Risen, that was released in 2020.
Before becoming a movie star, Erivo appeared in a number of musical theater productions in her native Great Britain and later in the U.S. She made her Broadway debut in a revival of the musical The Color Purple in 2015, winning a Tony for her performance as Celie.
The Hollywood Bowl’s summer season, which is mounted by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, usually includes a Broadway-style musical. Past productions include Les Misérables, Hair, and Kinky Boots.
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