She just couldn’t keep away from the Cotton Club! Grammy winner and American Idol alum Fantasia Barrino will light up the Brooks Atkinson Theatre once again when she returns to Broadway’s After Midnight. Having headlined the show as the first in a rotating roster of special guest star vocalists in the musical, she will come back for a limited engagement May 13 through June 8.
Barrino catapulted to fame in 2004 as the winner of American Idol. Her debut album, Free Yourself, received four Grammy nominations and was followed by a second self-titled release. She made her Broadway debut in April 2007 when she took over the role of Celie in The Color Purple, receiving a Broadway.com Audience Choice Award for her performance. She won a 2011 Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for “Bittersweet,” the lead single from her third solo album, Back to Me. Barrino also headlined her own VH1 reality series, Fantasia for Real. She released her fourth studio album Side Effects of You last year.
Conceived by Jack Viertel, After Midnight is an evocative new musical that tackles the sexy, smoky glamour of the Jazz Age, set in the heyday of Duke Ellington’s years at Harlem’s Cotton Club. The show currently stars Toni Braxton, Babyface, Tony winner Adriane Lenox and Dule Hill.