#cynthia-erivo

#cynthia-erivo

It's that time of year again - Christmas is coming and the release schedules are fattening up with every day. So it's time to watch the contenders gather on the starting line for one of the year's biggest chart races. This year, there is a wide variety of contenders - including children's favourites, charity fund raisers, daytime TV icons and Aussie pop queens, among many more. Within three weeks we'll know the winner. Until then... On your marks, get set, go!

Wicked protagonists Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are at the centre of a case of online misinformation claiming that they are in a "semi-binary" relationship. The duo, who were recently confronted by a "serial intruder" at the premiere of Wicked: For Good in Singapore, have continued to remain close during the promotional tour of the second film. Their intimate friendship, which tends to include a lot of touching, has led to online speculation that the pair are dating, with some even labelling them "creepy" online.

While Gatwa's character is yet to be revealed, Erivo, best-known as wicked witch of the west Elphaba, will be voicing Jayne Staplegun, a trailblazing fairy whose defiant streak sparks a rebellion. The film, which is currently in production, is being directed by Megan Nicole Dong and Olivier Staphylas. The soundtrack will include songs from Tony-winning duo Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Isabella Summers, of Florence + The Machine fame, is also involved and KPop Demon Hunters composer Ian Eisendrath, who worked on the first Wicked film, is the executive music producer.

In 2014 the then-unknown Brit was cast in the lead role of the massive West End folly I Can't Sing!, a parody of The X-Factor that turned up years too late for the zeitgeist and duly died a death at the gargantuan London Palladium. But unbenownst to her, she'd already made it: the previous year she'd got great reviews in the tiny Menier Chocolate Factory's production of the musical adaptation of Alice Walker's classic novel The Color Purple.

Erivo's casting was met with predictable anger from religious zealots, with many denouncing the casting of a queer Black woman as a 'siege' against Christianity.