The West End premiere of Marie and Rosetta, written by George Brant, and directed by Monique Touko will play @sohoplace from February 2026
Reprising their roles are multi-award winning singer and actress Beverley Knight as Rosetta Tharpe and Ntombizodwa Ndlovu making her West End debut as Marie Knight. Running @sohoplace theatre for a strictly limited run 28 February – 11 April 2026.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the roof-raising ‘godmother of rock ‘n’ roll’, influenced countless musicians from Elvis to Johnny Cash. This sparkling, intimate portrait of Rosetta and her beloved singing partner, Marie Knight, restores these forgotten musical heroines to the spotlight as one of the most remarkable and revolutionary duos in music history.
What is Marie and Rosetta about?
Mississippi, 1946. Sister Rosetta has changed the face of gospel music with her exuberant, electric guitar-playing style. Shunned by straitlaced church folk for performing in nightclubs and glorying in rhythm and blues, she’s persuaded the saintly young singer Marie to join her on a tour of the segregated southern States. But first she has to convert Marie’s pure Sunday sound into something that has just a little more swing…
Featuring a wealth of joyous rock and gospel hits including Didn’t It Rain and Peace in the Valley, the show will feature live musicians accompanying Olivier Award-winning West End star Beverley Knight (Memphis, The Drifters Girl, Sylvia, Sister Act) as Rosetta Tharpe.
The creative team joining Touko includes Jodie-Simone Howe (Costume Designer), Kloé Dean (Movement Director), Tony Gayle (Sound Designer), Bethan Clark (Intimacy Director), Joel Trill (Voice & Dialect Coach), Jordi M. Carter (Associate Director) and Shirley Teteh (Musical Director and Guitar).
Accessible performances of Marie and Rosetta
Captioned performance: Saturday 28 March 2026, 2.30pm
BSL interpreted: Friday 3 April 2026, 7.30pm
Audio Described performance: Saturday 4 April, 7.30pm
Who is Beverley Knight
Queen of British Soul Beverley Knight has been one of the UK’s most consistently outstanding artists for over 3 decades. She can truly do it all; an Olivier award-winning star of the West End stage, astounding singer with a prolific music career and much-loved TV & broadcast talent, she finds herself recently 50 and bigger than ever.
Beverley was awarded an MBE in 2007 for services to British music and charity, has won an Olivier Award (and twice nominated for Best Actress), won three MOBO Awards, been nominated for Best Female at the Brit Awards 3 times and Best Album at the prestigious Mercury Music Prize. Last year she also won the Outstanding Contribution to Diversity Award at the European Diversity Awards and was honoured at the Ethnicity Awards for her continued efforts in the field.
Her outstanding live performances have gained her a legion of famous fans, she has collaborated on stage and on record with the likes of Prince, Jamiroquai, Bocelli, Take That, Tom Jones, Chaka Khan & Marvin Gaye. Her most recent ‘50’ headline tour last year marked the release of her ninth studio album and was her biggest ever tour of the UK, including a sold out Royal Albert Hall.
In recent years, Wolverhampton born Knight has forged a formidable parallel career in theatre. Her West End debut was the starring role in The Bodyguard followed by leading the Tony winning Memphis The Musical. At the request of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber she joined the cast of Cats, playing the iconic role of Grizabella. 2021 saw Beverley lead The Drifters Girl (Olivier nominated Best New Musical) as the formidable manager of soul group The Drifters. Her role as Emmeline Pankhurst in the Old Vic’s production of Sylvia in 2023, garnered her both huge acclaim and her first Olivier Award win. Showing her versatility and comedic skill, Beverley starred as Deloris Van Cartier opposite Jennifer Saunders in the revival of Sister Act in Hammersmith Apollo’s highest grossing show ever in the venue, returning to the role opposite Ruth Jones at the Dominion last summer.
Her broadcasting work includes presenting 5 series of her own radio 2 show ‘Beverley’s Gospel Nights’, a panel judge in ITV’s talent series Starstruck and two series of the BBC1 show Just the Two of Us. She also appeared in the all-star cast of Amazon’s new live action movie Cinderella (2021) with Camilla Cabello in the title role.
A true British treasure, Beverley is a Patron for Terrence Higgins Trust, an ambassador for Plan UK, a founding member of The Circle plus long-time supporter of many charities.
Who is Ntombizodwa Ndlovu
Ntombizodwa Ndlovu graduated from the Manchester School of Theatre in 2021. In her third year she was a recipient of the Open Door Elevate Programme Award.
Ntombizodwa recently played Marie in Marie and Rosetta at Rose Theatre, Wolverhampton Grand & Chichester Festival Theatre for which she has been nominated for a UK Theatre Award for her performance.
Theatre credits include: Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, The Space Between Us, Mixtape, Nothing, The Mountaintop (Royal Exchange Theatre); BLITHE SPIRIT (Hope Mill Theatre); and A Time For Giving (Manchester International Festival).
Television & Radio Credits include: Banana; and You, Me & Her.
