Beverley Knight to play rock’n’roll pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Beverley Knight is to play Sister Rosetta Tharpe in a drama about the gospel singer and guitarist who became known as “the godmother of rock’n’roll”.
Written by US playwright George Brant (best known for the drone-pilot drama Grounded), Marie and Rosetta explores the personal and professional partnership between Tharpe and Marie Knight, with whom she toured and recorded. First staged off-Broadway in 2016, the play will have its UK premiere as a new co-production between the Rose theatre in Kingston, south-west London, Chichester Festival theatre and English Touring Theatre this summer.
It is billed as the professional play debut of Knight, whose recent stage roles in musicals have included two other real-life pioneers: suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in Sylvia (which won her an Olivier award) and music manager Faye Treadwell in The Drifters Girl. Rather than a musical, Marie and Rosetta is a “play with music” and includes versions of rock and gospel numbers such as Didn’t It Rain, Peace in the Valley and the pair’s hit Up Above My Head. The play, a two-hander, is set in the mid-1940s during rehearsals for their tour. Further casting and creatives are yet to be announced.
Knight said it was an honour to be cast as Tharpe, “one of the unsung architects of rock’n’roll”. She continued: “I am and have always been a storyteller, whether it be in a purely music form or in a theatrical setting. I’m excited to be able to tell the Sister Rosetta story in this important play.” Knight said that she had “performed many times in plays at an amateur level” and was thrilled to be making her professional debut as Tharpe, whose “powerful, expressive voice, electrifying guitar and gospel message” laid the foundations for rock’n’roll.
Related: Beverley Knight: ‘It’s been a harder journey than if I’d acquiesced. But sod that’
Director Monique Touko said: “This play allows us to not only celebrate the incredible lives of two trailblazing Black female musicians, but to immerse ourselves in their world, blending song and spectacle to bring their legacy to life. We’ll zoom in on the moments of their lives, big and small, and amplify their voices – both literally and metaphorically.”
Marie and Rosetta runs at the Rose theatre from 2-24 May then at Chichester Festival theatre from 25 June-26 July.
