Marie & Rosetta

Wolverhampton’s very own Beverley Knight returns to her home city to star as African American singer-songwriter Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Sister Rosetta’s distinctive gospel recordings - blending spiritual lyrics with the sound of the electric guitar - saw her scoring a major hit with mid-20th-century rhythm & blues and rock & roll audiences. 

Set in Mississippi in 1946, the story catches up with her at a time when her nightclub performances have seen her shunned by straitlaced church folk. Having persuaded a saintly singer named Marie Knight to join her on a tour of the segregated southern states, Rosetta must first of all convert the younger woman’s pure Sunday sound into something that has just a little more swing…

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