Last Updated on March 7, 2026
A joyful story of musical kinship
4.5 out of 5.0 stars“Electricity ain’t nothing new,” says gospel-rock pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe as she swings a guitar amp onto the stage. Marie Knight, a wary church singer and Tharpe’s new protégé, looks sceptical. Tharpe is only half right. Yes, there are plug sockets all over 1940s Mississippi, but Monique Touko’s production of George Brant’s Marie and Rosetta sings with new electricity. After runs at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, and the Chichester Festival Theatre, its arrival in London’s West End brings a fresh, sparky current.
Marie and Rosetta is about the relationship between multi-genre singers Sister Rosetta Tharpe
(Beverly Knight — Sister Act) and Marie Knight (Ntombizodwa Ndlovu — Cat on a Hot Tin Roof). We join the protagonists ahead of their first show together – held in a warehouse in rural Mississippi. Tharpe, a veteran of the gospel scene, has picked Knight out of a backing quartet the previous evening. Now she intends to teach her partner how to ‘swing’, to infuse Knight’s religious repertoire with some nightclub rhythm and blues.
Knight, the younger, more restrained church singer, is awestruck by Tharpe’s musical adventurousness. She is the timid counterweight to her mentor’s formidable stage presence. Preparation for their first show is the narrative frame through which the performers explore each other’s voices, hopes and sorrows. Their meeting is an open-hearted musical communion rather than a frantic backstage drama.
Marie and Rosetta is a story of partnership, a profile of a musical innovator marginalised by mainstream culture, and an examination of racial injustice in the post-war American South. Tharpe’s fusion of electric guitar with gospel music paved the way for modern rock and roll. She was, as Knight reminds her, Elvis’s favourite guitar player. Marie and Rosetta is as joyful as it is poignant – it fills the gaps in the musical history books with soulful melodies and hip-shaking beats.
Beverly Knight delivers a barnstorming performance as Sister Rosetta Tharpe. She is a multi-talented actor-musician firing on all cylinders in Marie and Rosetta. Her vocal control is astonishing: she goes from belting big hitters to floating behind Ntombizodwa Ndlovu. She navigates the circular stage with a lop-sided gait, delivering pithy retorts and heartfelt pep talks to Ndlovu. Her accolades – including two MOBOs and a 2023 Laurence Olivier Award – shine through every note.
Ntombizodwa Ndlovu is no less impressive. Her character, Marie Knight, is a more understated presence, but she draws great laughs from the audience and achieves a nuanced development from innocent church girl to liberated performer. Her version of ‘Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)’ was goosebump-inducing. Together, Knight and Ndlovu are a double act to fall in love with.
The key to Marie and Rosetta’s success is its intelligent approach to its musical subject matter. Songs are always essential plot points, never reruns of the dialogue in musical form. Each number becomes a means for the characters to explore each other. There are false starts, interruptions and mistakes as Tharpe prods at Knight’s “high-church” sound, and a brilliant musical skit on the controversial rolled R in the word rockin’.
‘Musicals contain music: that’s just what they are’ is the status quo of London’s West End. But Marie and Rosetta cleverly subverts this doctrine. The characters build their relationship through their songs. Music is earned rather than inherited by the genre. The soundtrack – just like the plot – builds to its climax. We must wait until the interval for the singers and the live band to play together for the first time.
Marie and Rosetta ends abruptly and – without spoilers – makes a bold revision of the show’s timeframe. It’s a creative choice that doesn’t quite work for me. But its merging of music and history, and its intelligent approach to the musical form itself, makes Marie and Rosetta a delight. It promises swinging hits and thought-provoking social commentary. It’s not to be missed.
Marie and Rosetta runs at @sohoplace from 4th March to 11th April.
@sohoplace
Charing Cross Road
London
W1D 3BG
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