Jon Batiste To Make Acting Debut In ‘The Colour Purple’ Adaptation

Grammy award-winning singer Jon Batiste will make his acting debut in Warner Brothers’ upcoming adaptation of The Colour Purple.

Batiste will feature in the film scheduled to debut in December 2023. The film is based on the 2005 Broadway adaptation of Alice Walker’s book, and Batiste will act alongside H.E.R. and Taraji P. Henson

The Tony-winning Broadway musical is an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel by Alice Walker, self-titled, on which the Oscar-nominated Steven Spielberg-directed 1985 movie was based.

The Colour Purple focuses on Celie Harris and her lifelong struggles as an African American woman living in the South during the early 1900s.

Batiste will play Grady, Shug Avery’s (played by Taraji P. Henson) husband, a sweet-talking piano man.

Also cast in the film are Henson, Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, H.E.R., and others.

The musical will be directed by Blitz Bazawule, the filmmaker behind the Beyoncé’s Black Is King.

Warners Brothers has set the musical’s release date for Dec. 20, 2023.

Batiste is the bandleader and musical director of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. The singer who was the most nominated at the 2022 Grammy Awards, won five Grammys at award show and his latest studio album, We Are, won album of the year. He also previously won an Oscar for best original score for the Pixar film Soul.