Cynthia Erivo to Join Viola Davis in Steve McQueen Thriller, WIDOWS

Tony Award- winner and breakout star of Broadway's "The Color Purple", Cynthia Erivo, will join Viola Davis in a brand new heist thriller "Widows."

The film is set to be directed by Steve McQueen, who will also pen the screenplay with "Gone Girl" author, Gillian Flynn.

Variety describes the project as "based on the 1983 British miniseries about a caper gone wrong, the story follows four armed robbers who are killed in a failed heist attempt, leaving their widows to finish the job."

Cynthia Erivo is a multiple award-winning actress who has made a name for herself on both West End and Broadway stages. Erivo made her Broadway debut reprising her starring role as 'Celie' in the critically acclaimed revival of The Color Purple. She first played the role in 2013 at London's Menier Chocolate Factory, earning rave reviews and an Evening Standard Theatre Award nomination for Best Musical Performance and a WhatsOnStage Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. Her performance on Broadway earned her the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical, as well as the Drama Desk Award, Theatre World and Outer Critics Circle Awards and a Drama League Award nomination. In spring 2015, Erivo appeared as 'Puck' in the Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse production ofWilliam Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Nick Bagnall. In fall 2014, she returned to her classical roots in the Donmar Warehouse's acclaimed all-female production ofHenry IV, opposite Dame Harriet Walter, directed by Phyllida Lloyd. In summer 2014, she played the lead in the European premiere of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty musical Dessa Rose at Trafalgar Studios.

Erivo's additional theatre credits include the Perfect Pitch musical, Lift, directed by Steven Paling; Kneehigh Theatre's production of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg at the Gielgud Theatre; the starring role of 'Deloris Van Cartier' in the UK tour of Jerry Zaks' production of Sister Act; Harry Hill and Simon Cowell's critically acclaimed musical, I Can't Sing, at the London Palladium in the West End; Simon Stephens' Marine Parade, which premiered at the 2010 Brighton Festival, John Adams' experimental song play, "I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw The Sky," at Theatre Royal Stratford East; and Dominic Hill's The Three Musketeers and The Princess of Spain at Traverse, Belgrade and English Touring theatres. In addition to her stage career, Cynthia is an accomplished songwriter, having written the song, "Fly Before You Fall," for the 2014 feature film Beyond the Lights. In March 2015, she made her solo concert debut with the show entitled "Hear My Soul" at Kings Place in London. A UK native, Erivo graduated from the famEd Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 2010.