Cynthia Erivo to Lead “Talent Show” For Universal

Cynthia Erivo.
Cynthia Erivo. Photo by David Fisher/Shutterstock (10525963li)

Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo will be starring in Universal Pictures’ Talent Show.

Based on an idea by Duane Adler, the Save the Last Dance scribe who originated the Step Up franchise, Gandja Monteiro (Vida, The Chi) will direct the musical drama.

Erivo will play a failed songwriter who returns home to Chicago to lead a group of at-risk youth in their annual talent show.

Erivo is a singer and songwriter and she won a Tony for best actress in a musical for the Broadway revival of The Color Purple which also won a Grammy win for best musical theater album. For Harriet, the biopic of abolitionist Harriet Tubman, Erivo received Oscar nominations for best actress and best original song.

Her other credits include Widows, Bad Times at the El Royale, and HBO’s Stephen King adaptation The Outsider. Her next role is as the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin in NatGeo’s Genius: Aretha.