By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 3 May 2025, opens 9 May and runs through 24 May 2025 before transferring RUNTIME: 100 minutes (no interval) Update: Transfers to @SohoPlace 28 February through 11 April 2026 Tickets

Sometimes in our search for the new we forget the power of stories from the past and so it is that despite being hugely influential Sister Rosetta Tharpe became forgotten even in her own lifetime.

• Read on for reasons including where else to see this unusual story of an unsung hero

The Godmother of Rock’n’Roll influenced musicians including Elvis, Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Cash by bringing an electric guitar to gospel in the 30s and 40s but the story of a black woman’s success in a world dominated by men is 1 you could be forgiven for not being familiar with.

American playwright George Brant wrote this in 2016 and this is its UK premiere focussing on 1 aspect of Tharpe’s career, her collaboration with singer Marie Knight, rather than attempt to shoehorn everything in.

Knight (Sylvia, Old Vic) plays Rosetta and Ntombizodwa Ndlovu is Marie and the best thing about this production is the women’s outstanding vocals of songs which fuse gospel, boogie woogie, rock’n’roll and jazz.

We get occasional glimpses of the live band (pictured below) but this story focuses instead on the stories of the 2 women and in particular on the mentoring role Rosetta, the bigger star plays, in making this partnership an equal 1 rather than competing with Marie for the spotlight or stabbing her in the back.

This is no All About Eve then and instead runs with a theme of Self Esteem’s latest album A Complicated Woman and West End residency that there is real power in people working together as a community rather than seeking perpetually to outdo each other.

Knight is an extraordinary musical theatre talent who we’ve seen take the lead in mainstream work including Sister Act and The Drifters Girl but this feels like a personal project that wouldn’t reach the audience that it deserves to without her involvement.

It was perhaps expecting too much to think she might go for it with an electric guitar but we would have loved to have seen much more than the occasional glimpse of the supporting band here even if it would switch attention from the 2 women’s relationship which is the play’s focus.

If this was a film – and perhaps 1 day it will be – it would probably take in the extraordinarily influential nature of Rosetta’s entire career and so this episode feels a little pedestrian compared with what it could have been.

However it’s an opportunity to appreciate an aspect of an amazing career and a story that feels important to tell – especially now.

If you can’t make this Kingston run this production transfers to Chichester Festival Theatre. Tickets

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Rose Theatre, Kingston Tickets
• Have you seen an Rose Theatre show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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