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‘The Piano Lesson’: Erykah Badu Latest To Board Netflix’s August Wilson Adaptation

Four-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Erykah Badu (What Men Want) has been set to make a cameo appearance with musical performances in Netflix‘s film The Piano Lesson, based on the play by August Wilson.

Leading the pic, as previously announced, are John David Washington and Samuel L. Jackson, who starred in a Broadway revival of the play at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, which has just recently landed Tony noms for Best Revival of a Play and Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play (Jackson).

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Part of Wilson’s famed 10-play “American Century Cycle,” also encompassing such titles as Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson is set in 1936 Pittsburgh during the aftermath of the Great Depression. The film centers on the lives of the Charles family in the Doaker Charles household and an heirloom, the family piano, which is decorated with designs carved by an enslaved ancestor.

Also set to star are Ray Fisher, Danielle Deadwyler, Michael Potts and Corey Hawkins. Malcolm Washington is making his feature directorial debut with the project, working from his script written with Virgil Williams (Mudbound). Constanza Romero, Jennifer Roth and Katia Washington are exec producers on the titles, which will mark the latest in a series of stage-to-screen adaptations of Wilson’s plays from producers Denzel Washington and Todd Black.

Best known acting-wise for turns in films like The Cider House Rules and What Men Want, Badu has also previously been part of the series Black Dynamite (Adult Swim), Hand of God (Prime Video) and A Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO). She is repped by CAA and White Wiggins & Barnes.

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