Uzo Aduba is following in Jennifer Hudson’s footsteps. According to Entertainment Weekly, the “Orange Is the New Black” star will be playing Rosaleen in a musical workshop production of “The Secret Life of Bees,” based on Sue Monk Kidd’s award-winning 2004 novel. Yep, Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren has major pipes. Aduba already showed them off as Glinda the Good Witch on NBC’s “The Wiz Live!” “The Secret Life of Bees” was adapted for the screen in 2008 by Gina Prince-Bythewood with Hudson playing the role Aduba will take on in the musical workshop.
Rosaleen is a mother-figure and maid to the narrator of the story, a 14-year-old girl named Lily. The pair flee Lily’s abusive father and “seek refuge in South Carolina with the Boatwright sisters, who teach Lily about beekeeping, honey, and the Black Madonna,” EW summarizes.
The workshop is part of Powerhouse Theater’s 2017 season. As EW points out, Broadway megahits “Hamilton,” “The Humans,” and “Doubt” were all developed at the theater.
Aduba has received two Emmy Awards for her role in “Orange Is the New Black.” “She’s always been Suzanne in my mind. The way I use ‘crazy’ is she’s crazy-good, crazy-fun, crazy-fun-to-play, for sure. But she’s definitely been ‘Suzanne’ to me because I didn’t want to get trapped in the one layer of just playing ‘crazy,’” Aduba has said of her character on the Netflix show. “When I was approaching the material, I thought of her as somebody who just feels deeply. This is someone who loves passionately. Every side of her life is a ‘10.’ She gets mad at a 10, she loves at a 10, and she’s gonna pee at a 10. That’s how I approach Suzanne,” she explained.
