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.
‘Wicked’ trailer sees Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo duet on ‘Defying Gravity’
nme.comWicked is out now, and it features extensive use of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo’s duet of ‘Defying Gravity’ – check it out below.The film is the first of a two-part adaptation of the stage musical of the same name, and stars Erivo as Elphaba and Grande as Glinda, alongside the likes of Michelle Yeoh (who plays Madame Morrible), Jeff Goldblum (the Wizard of Oz) and Jonathan Bailey (Fiyero Tigelaar).
It will be released in cinemas on November 22.Now, the film’s second official trailer has been released, and it shows the CGI-created land of Oz, alongside glimpses of the two lead characters’ backstories.
The trailer is scored by the two stars’ rendition of ‘Defying Gravity’, one of the musical’s signature songs. Watch below:Wicked, which is directed by Jon M.
Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, In The Heights), is the first instalment of the film adaptation, with Wicked: Part Two expected on November 26, 2025.‘Defying Gravity’, like the rest of the songs from the original show, was written by Stephen Schwartz and originally recorded by Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth in 2003.The stage version of Wicked has been a monster hit, running for over two decades and winning Tony and Grammy Awards.
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