Review: Cynthia Erivo is playing Jesus, Maggie Nelson is analyzing Taylor Swift and nobody is apologizing

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Book ReviewIf you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.In 2024, in a story I wrote for this newspaper about a glam L.A.event, I name-checked “ ‘The Color Purple’ star Cynthia Erivo.” My editor deleted the description, noting, “Everyone knows who Cynthia Erivo is.”It might never have been so.

In her first book, “Simply More,” a lean memoir interlaced with snippets of commonsensical advice, Erivo glowingly recalls her childhood in uber-diverse South London, where her Nigerian immigrant mom raised Cynthia and her younger sister in a maisonette “with everything shrunk down because it was such a small building.” Rather than bemoaning the hardships of growing up with a working single mom and an absent father, in “Simply More” Erivo expresses gratitude for the “kind of made-up family” that her neighbors of many languages comprised.“I learned so much about the world in that little space,” she writes, describing “an astonishing, captivating blend of cultures that influences me to this very day.” “Simply More” explores Erivo’s milestones lived and lessons learned between her birth in 1987 and June 2025, when we meet her at 38, preparing to star in “Jesus Christ Superstar” at the Hollywood Bowl.

By then Erivo has won an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony, and she’s been nominated for an Oscar.She’s released several singles and two solo albums.

She’s made her Broadway debut in her 2015-2017 run as Celie in “The Color Purple.” She’s played Harriet Tubman in the 2019 film “Harriet,” Aretha Franklin in the 2021 TV anthology series “Genius: Aretha,” and, most famously, Elphaba in “Wicked” (2024).When she was cast as Jesus in 2025, Erivo’s achievements failed to protect her, a queer Black woman, from controversy fueled mostly by Christian conservat...