Dance Diva Deborah Cox Back to Broadway

R&B singer Deborah Cox will return to Broadway as the star of a new musical about the life of Josephine Baker, an African-American expatriate who gained fame as a singer in France in the 1930s and later became a civil rights activist.

Cox was cast in the title role of Josephine, according to The New York Times.

"Joey McKneely, fresh from reviving Jerome Robbins's original choreography for this year's West Side Story, is set to direct and choreograph," reported the newspaper. "Steve Dorff is to supply a score, with lyrics by John Bettis and a book by Ellen Weston and Mark Hampton. The theater, dates, and additional casting for the production are to be announced later."

Cox, whose hit songs include "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here" and "Absolutely Not," was last seen on Broadway in the musical Aida in 2004.

Baker, known to the French as "La Baker," was the first African-American woman to become an internationally famous entertainer. The actress, singer, and dancer later helped lead the U.S. civil rights movement.