Cynthia Erivo to join Strictly Come Dancing judging panel for musicals week
© Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage
The BBC has announced that stage and screen star Cynthia Erivo will be a guest judge on this weekend's episodes of Strictly Come Dancing.
The Tony Award-winning Brit is stepping in for regular judge Craig Revel Horwood, who is at home recovering from a Covid infection, and will join Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke for Musicals Week.
Erivo was also recently cast in the coveted role of Elphaba in the long-awaited film adaptation of Wicked and her stage credits include The Color Purple in London and on Broadway, Dessa Rose, I Can't Sing! The X Factor Musical, Sister Act and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
As previously reported, the musical performances this weekend will be as follows:
Rhys Stephenson and Nancy Xu – "Footloose" from Footloose
John Whaite and Johannes Radebe – "Chim Chim Cher-ee" from Mary Poppins
AJ Odudu and Kai Widdrington – "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music
Tilly Ramsay and Nikita Kuzmin – "Revolting Children" from Matilda
Tom Fletcher and Amy Dowden – "On My Own" from Les Misérables
Rose Ayling-Ellis and Giovanni Pernice – "Love is an Open Door" from Frozen
Dan Walker and Nadiya Bychkova – "Good Morning" from Singin' in the Rain
In an extra special move, WhatsOnStage will be collaborating with BBC Sounds – the presenters of Strictly Come Dancing: The Official Podcast Joe Sugg and Kim Winston will be taking over our Instagram page providing an exclusive backstage look at all things Strictly.
On Sunday, the star of the recent Everybody's Talking About Jamie big-screen adaptation Max Harwood will be joined by The Feeling to present a rendition of "Out of The Darkness" during the results show, while the weekend will also see the professionals perform to numbers from Cabaret and Wicked.
