Cynthia Erivo prepares a special Hollywood Bowl concert with two secret guests
Cynthia Erivo returns to the Hollywood Bowl stage in Los Angeles for a one-off concert, Let Me Sing to You, scheduled for October 15, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. local time. The official Hollywood Bowl website announces the performance as a standalone headline concert by the British actress and singer and emphasizes that it will take place for one night only. Ahead of her return to one of America's best-known amphitheaters, Erivo also revealed a detail that immediately attracted additional attention: she will be joined on stage by two guests who have not yet been announced. Their names have not been revealed, and the artist herself has offered only a few hints about how they are connected to her career and musical tastes. According to her remarks to People magazine, one guest is someone she sang with at the very beginning of her career, while the other is a musician who is newer to her wider audience and someone whose work she personally values very highly.
The announcement comes less than a month before the concert and during a period in which Erivo is simultaneously maintaining a strong presence in music, film and theater. In its official announcement, the Hollywood Bowl describes her as an Emmy, Tony and two-time Grammy winner and a three-time Oscar nominee, while her career has expanded further in recent years thanks to the film musical Wicked, her solo discography and her return to major theater stages. Although her film roles have made her recognizable to a global audience, the Let Me Sing to You concert is conceived as an evening centered on her voice, her own musical identity and a repertoire that has gradually changed over recent months. Erivo has not published a complete set list, but she said that through previous performances she had slowly been introducing material she wants to bring to the Hollywood Bowl. As a result, the concert for now remains a combination of a confirmed date, a well-known performer and deliberately preserved surprises.
Two guests, two different connections to her music
The greatest interest was generated by Erivo's comments about the secret guests, made during her stay at the Toronto International Film Festival. On September 15, People reported that the singer had confirmed the arrival of "a few guests" and then described two very different collaborations she is preparing. Of the first, she said that it is someone the audience will know very well and that she has not sung with that person in front of an audience for a long time. She added that they had already performed together at the beginning of her career and that she is especially looking forward to performing together again. She did not reveal whether the person is a theater colleague, a film co-star or a musician with whom she collaborated outside those projects.
The second guest, according to the same statement, is a man whose music has particularly impressed Erivo, but whom she considers still relatively new to her audience. She said that she wants people to hear his music, suggesting that this part of the evening will also have the character of introducing a performer whom she personally supports. The name of this guest has not been confirmed either, so linking any specific musicians to the announcement at this point would be speculation. It is precisely this contrast between a familiar collaborator from an earlier phase of her career and a newer performer that gives the concert additional dramatic structure: one collaboration reaches back toward the beginning of Erivo's professional journey, while the other points toward the music she currently follows and wants to introduce to her own audience. As of September 16, the organizers had not released any additional details about the guests.
Erivo described the upcoming concert to People as an evening that should be relaxed, emotional and fun. She emphasized that the set list has been changed gradually in recent months, with songs being added that she wants to perform at the Hollywood Bowl. Such an approach fits her concert career, in which she often combines material from musicals, film projects, her own discography and interpretations of songs by other writers. However, for the October 15 performance, it has not yet been officially confirmed which songs will be performed or whether the program will include an orchestra, a special ensemble or additional performers beyond the two announced guests. The official event page simply presents the concert as Erivo's solo headline performance, with Live Nation and Hewitt Silva as promoters.
Returning to a stage where she has already built her own history
The Hollywood Bowl is not a new stage for Erivo. According to the Los Angeles Philharmonic archive, she gave her first solo performance there on July 30, 2021, with the LA Phil, during the period when the large-scale concert program in Los Angeles was returning after pandemic shutdowns. That performance was also important because of its format: her powerful theatrical and soul vocal style was placed within an orchestral framework, which became one of the defining features of her major concert evenings. The LA Phil also lists her in its archive as a guest on other projects, so her 2026 return can be viewed as a continuation of a multi-year relationship with the venue rather than a one-off appearance by a star following film success.
In 2024, Erivo took part in the Hollywood Bowl season opening dedicated to the centenary of composer Henry Mancini's birth. The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association included her in the program alongside performers including Michael Bublé, Dave Koz and Monica Mancini. A year later, she returned to the Bowl in a completely different role, as Jesus in the concert production of Jesus Christ Superstar, held from August 1 to 3, 2025, which also featured Adam Lambert. Those projects demonstrate the breadth of her repertoire: from orchestral standards and film music to rock musicals and a solo concert program.
The Hollywood Bowl itself is one of the key symbols of Los Angeles concert life. Historical materials from the institution state that the tradition of concerts at that location has been developing since the early 1920s, and the amphitheater celebrated its 100th summer season in 2022. Today's recognizable concert shell was built in 2004, while the basic shape of the large seating area was established as early as 1926. Over the decades, the stage has hosted performers from classical music, jazz, rock, pop and Broadway, which is why a solo concert at the Bowl often represents an important professional moment for performers. Erivo will perform there on October 15 outside the LA Phil's traditional summer schedule, in a program that the official website lists as a special concert evening.
From Broadway and "The Color Purple" to global recognition
Erivo's reputation as a vocalist and theater actress was built long before she took on the role of Elphaba in the film Wicked. The American Theatre Wing and the Tony Awards confirm that in 2016 she won the Tony for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for the role of Celie in the Broadway revival of The Color Purple. The cast album of that production also earned her a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album, together with the other key performers and producers of the project. Ten years later, at the 2026 Grammy Awards, she won her second Grammy: Defying Gravity, performed with Ariana Grande, was named Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.
Her three Oscar nominations also show how the musical and acting sides of her career overlap. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences states that for the film Harriet she was nominated for Best Actress, while the song Stand Up, which she wrote with Joshuah Brian Campbell, was nominated for Best Original Song at the 2020 ceremony. Five years later, she was again nominated for Best Actress, this time for Elphaba in the first Wicked film. This brought her total number of individual Oscar nominations to three, although they relate to two different film roles and one original song.
The popularity of the film Wicked further increased interest in Erivo as a singer beyond theatrical circles. The role of Elphaba combined her Broadway experience, Stephen Schwartz's highly demanding vocal material and a film format intended for a global audience. The second part, Wicked: For Good, arrived in cinemas in November 2025, and Erivo continued performing outside the film project during the promotional period. People reported that on August 16, 2026, she also made a surprise appearance at Ariana Grande's tour concert in London, but there is no official confirmation that this recent collaboration has any connection to the secret guests at the Hollywood Bowl. The concert organizers have so far offered no clues that would justify conclusions about their identities.
"I Forgive You" as an important part of her current musical phase
The concert comes after her second studio album, I Forgive You, released on June 6, 2025. Erivo's official store and Grammy.com describe the album as a project in which pop, R&B, folk, gospel and other influences intertwine, with a strong emphasis on personal songwriting and vocal textures. In an interview with the Recording Academy ahead of the album's release, Erivo spoke about the need to be freer in her own music and to embrace imperfection, vulnerability and the changes that come with time. The album contains 20 tracks, including Best For Me, Save Me From You, Holy Refrain, Be Okay, Replay and Grace.
Unlike performing roles that are predefined by a dramatic text or score, Erivo's solo music gives her space to perform under her own name and shape the story of the concert more directly. In an interview with Grammy.com, she said that she had actually never left music, but had worked simultaneously on film, television and concerts between albums. According to her, it was precisely the series of performances that renewed her desire to return to creating her own material. That is why Let Me Sing to You arrives at a moment when audiences have a significantly broader catalog from which to expect a selection of songs than they did at her first Bowl performance in 2021. The exact balance of original songs, theatrical numbers and covers, however, remains unknown.
The concert title also precisely describes the format through which Erivo has increasingly presented herself outside film roles in recent years: as a vocalist capable of moving between musical theater, soul, pop, gospel and orchestral arrangements. The official Hollywood Bowl announcement does not provide a detailed program concept, but the title Let Me Sing to You itself places performance and communication with the audience at the forefront. Erivo's comment that she had been "gradually feeding" the set list through previous performances further suggests that the program was developed through practice rather than as a completely separate production assembled only for Los Angeles. Whether the final version will also include songs from Wicked, The Color Purple or other well-known projects will officially become clear only when the program is performed or further announced.
A concert in the middle of an intense film and theater year
The musical return to the Hollywood Bowl is taking place during a particularly active year for Erivo. At the beginning of 2026, she returned to London's West End in the production of Dracula at the Noël Coward Theatre, where she played all 23 characters in an adaptation directed by Kip Williams. The production ran from February through the end of May, and the producer's official website described it as a solo performance in which one actress takes on the entire range of characters from Bram Stoker's story through theater and video. It was a different kind of physical and acting challenge from the large concert and festival performances that followed during the year.
In September, Erivo was in Toronto for the film Prima Facie, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 13. The film is an adaptation of the play of the same name by Australian author Suzie Miller and was directed by Susanna White. Erivo plays Tessa, a successful lawyer who mainly defends defendants in sexual assault cases and then, after experiencing an assault herself, finds herself on the other side of the legal system. People reports that as of September 16, the film still had no announced date for regular distribution. It was precisely during the promotion of that film that Erivo revealed the most concrete details about the guests at the Los Angeles concert.
Such a schedule further explains why the concert announcement has been framed as a special, one-off evening rather than as part of a major tour with a dozen identical dates. On her official website, the October 15 date at the Hollywood Bowl is currently the date highlighted in the 2026 tour section. This does not rule out individual performances or guest appearances elsewhere, but it confirms the special status of the Los Angeles concert in her current schedule. For the audience, it is also important that this is a program which, according to Erivo, has been changing through performances, so it will not necessarily function as a simple reproduction of an earlier concert.
What is confirmed for October 15
As of September 16, it has been confirmed that Let Me Sing to You will take place at the Hollywood Bowl on Thursday, October 15, beginning at 7:30 p.m., while gates open at 6 p.m. according to the official website. The event is advertised as a one-off solo concert by Cynthia Erivo, and tickets are on sale through official channels connected with the Hollywood Bowl and Ticketmaster. Two special guests have also been confirmed, but their names have not been publicly announced. One is a well-known Erivo collaborator from the early period of her career with whom she has not sung publicly for a long time, while the other is a musician whom she wants to introduce to a larger part of her own audience.
Everything else - from the exact set list to the moment when the guests will appear - remains part of the surprise. Erivo spoke about the evening without making major production promises, emphasizing atmosphere, emotion and the pleasure of singing itself. That is fully in keeping with the concert's title and with a phase of her career in which she simultaneously has major film projects, an award-winning theater biography and an increasingly developed catalog of original music. After several previous appearances at the Hollywood Bowl, on October 15 the focus will once again return to her voice, while the two secret collaborations remain the biggest open element of the program.
Sources:
- Hollywood Bowl - official page for Cynthia Erivo's October 15, 2026 concert, schedule, performance format and biographical information (link)
- People - interview with Cynthia Erivo about two secret guests, the concert atmosphere, the development of the set list and the film Prima Facie (link)
- Los Angeles Philharmonic - archive of Erivo's previous Hollywood Bowl performances and collaborations with the LA Phil (link)
- Los Angeles Philharmonic Association - announcement of the 2024 season opening and Erivo's participation in the program dedicated to Henry Mancini (link)
- Recording Academy / Grammy.com - official record of Erivo's awards and nominations, including the 2026 Grammy for Defying Gravity (link)
- Grammy.com - interview about the album I Forgive You, musical influences and her return to original music (link)
- Tony Awards - official record of the 2016 award for Leading Actress in a Musical for The Color Purple (link)
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - official records of the nominations for Harriet in 2020 and Wicked in 2025 (link)
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - official record of the Best Actress nomination for Wicked at the 2025 ceremony (link)
- Cynthia Erivo Official Store - information about the album I Forgive You, its release date and track list (link)
- Michael Cassel Group - official information about the London production of Dracula and Erivo's performance of 23 roles (link)
- Hollywood Bowl, The First 100 Years - historical context of the amphitheater and development of the concert venue (link)