Deborah Cox Announced to Star in Broadway Hopeful 'Josephine'

The New York Times reports this morning that Deborah Cox, who last appeared on Broadway starring in AIDA has been cast to play Josephine Baker in the 'Broadway bound' new musical - Josephine. The show will be directed and choreographed by Joey McKneely, with music by Steve Dorff, lyrics by John Bettis and a book by Ellen Weston and Mark Hampton. No further casting or scheduling information is available at this time.

Josephine Baker was an American expatriate entertainer and actress. She became a French citizen in 1937. Most noted as a singer, Baker also was a celebrated dancer in her early career. She was given the nicknames the "Bronze Venus" or the "Black Pearl", as well as the "Créole Goddess" in anglophone nations. In France, she has always been known as "La Baker".

Baker was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture, to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (she was offered the leadership of the movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, but turned it down), for assisting the French Resistance during World War II and being the first American-born woman to receive the French military honor, the Croix de Guerre.Deborah Cox was born in Toronto, Ontario to parents of Afro-Guyanese descent, grew up in Scarborough, Toronto.

In 1995, label executive Clive Davis signed Cox to Arista Records, and she released her self-titled debut album the same year. After middling success, Cox released a non-album single for the soundtrack to the 1997 movie Money Talks, entitled "Things Just Ain't The Same", which failed to make the U.S. top forty. A dance mix of the song topped the U.S. dance charts, however, and was included on her second album, 1998's One Wish. The first single from that album, "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here", spent fourteen weeks at #1 on the Hot R&B charts in the USA, as well as eight consecutive weeks at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album went platinum, becoming Cox's biggest-selling album to date. Cox then recorded a new song, "Absolutely Not", for the soundtrack to Dr. Dolittle 2. Remixes of the song repeated the success of One Wish's singles on the dance charts, and the Chanel mix of "Absolutely Not" was included on her third album entitled The Morning After, which was released in November 2002 on J Records. On February 17, 2004, she made her Broadway debut in the Elton John-Tim Rice musical Aida, returning to recording only to release a dance remix of "Easy As Life" as a single.

Cox also has been involved in a number of movies and soundtracks. In 2000, she played Niko Rosen in Love Come Down. In 2001, her hit-song "Absolutely Not" was featured in Dr. Dolittle 2. In 2005, in the movie Blood of a Champion she played the role of Sharon, and again in 2005, her voice was featured in the movie Hotel Rwanda in a song entitled "Nobody Cares".

In early 2008 Cox & Stephens created the Deco Recording Group, her very own independent label, which is distributed through Image Entertainment. Soon she started recording songs for a new album. Her fourth R&B studio album, entitled The Promise, has been released on November 11, 2008.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.