Audra McDonald
IN PHOTO: Actress Audra McDonald poses backstage with her Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role of a Play for "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill" during the American Theatre Wing's 68th annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York, June 8, 2014. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly Reuters/Andrew Kelly

Set to join Emma Watson, Luke Evans and Dan Stevens in live-action “Beauty and the Beast,” Broadway star Audra McDonald is in final negotiations to join Bill Condon’s (“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn”) ensemble cast. The “Private Practice” actress is an award-winning stage star who has appeared on stage in both musicals and drama (“Ragtime,” “Carousel” and “A Raisin in the Sun”).

The 44-year-old American singer is set to play Garderobe, the French word for wardrobe. Before she was turned into a singing wardrobe, Garderobe is the Prince’s lady-in-waiting who was included in the curse that turned the Prince into a Beast.

The Hollywood Reporter announced the actress soon to be involvement to the film on Friday, March 27, as she joins Watson’s Belle, Stevens’ Beast/Prince and Evans’ villainous Gaston. British actress Emma Thompson is going to play Mrs. Pott, Kevin Kline as Belle’s father Maurice and “Frozen’s” Josh Gad as Gaston’s sidekick Le Fou. The movie is reportedly going to start shooting in May at Shepperton Studios in London.

Live-action “Beauty and the Beast” is setting itself closely with the 1991 Disney animated classic with its cast singing the famous songs of the movie. Along with Thompson’s Mrs. Potts, McDonald’s character will assist Belle in her “initial loneliness” as they sing the famous “Be Our Guest.”

Unlike Disney’s live-action “Cinderella,” “Beauty and the Beast” remake will include the film’s classic songs by Alan Menken, who won two Oscars for the 1991 animated version. The singer will also have a solo part in “Human Again,” a deleted song from the original movie and was added in the 2001 special-edition DVD.

McDonald recently won the best performance by an actress in a play “Lady Day in Emerson’s Bar and Grill” in 2014 and best performance by an actress in a musical for “Porgy and Bess” in 2012. The actress is the only person to win all four acting categories and has won six competitive Tony Awards for acting.

Repped by WME, the actress will be seen in HBO’s adaptation of “Lady Day.” McDonald’s other movies include “The Object of My Affection” in 1998, “The Best Thief in the World” in 2004, “Rampart” in 2011 and “Ricki and the Flash” in 2015.

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