Latest news with #NtombizodwaNdlovu
BBC News
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Beverley Knight recording again after return to Wolverhampton
Beverley Knight has said she is planning to record more music after performing in her hometown the first time in 40 years, the artist is treading the boards in Wolverhampton this week for a production of Marie & work features music celebrating the legacy of gospel and blues singer Rosetta Tharpe in the development of rock 'n' said "expect to hear some really bluesy vocals going down, some really earthy sounding stuff" in the music she would record. The singer told BBC Radio WM this would take place "in the short period" after finishing in Wolverhampton and before doing her first show with Take That's Gary Barlow. Asked what kind of material would be recorded, she said for her "it's always a hybrid" before mentioning the "blues and that kind of sound" in her current show and the film Sinners "and that proper fusion of modern blues and that"."I've just been living for it," added Knight, who said she did not know when it would be last performed on stage at the Grand four decades ago in a theatrical production of West Side Story, the singer previously stated. Knight, widely regarded as one of Britain's greatest soul singers, has said to be cast as Sister Rosetta in this week's production was a "great honour".Marie & Rosetta tells the story of Tharpe and her protege, Marie Knight, played by Ntombizodwa Ndlovu. It is on at the Grand Theatre until Saturday. It is set in 1946 in Mississippi and Beverley Knight said it was "right up my street... the gospel, of course, I was born into that whole tradition myself".She added: "I'm so happy I'm home. I'm gonna be in my old bedroom."More or less it looks the same as it was. [The] bed's in the same place... [the] fitted wardrobe's in the same place."Knight said her favourite place in the city "just to zone out and just chill out" was Bantock Park."I love Bantock Park. You've got the lovely cafe there and they do a really good tea and cake and... I go for lovely runs around there in the morning." Follow BBC Wolverhampton & Black Country on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
The Guardian
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Marie and Rosetta review – Beverley Knight's mighty vocal soars as the godmother of rock'n'roll
With her coffee table-size electric guitar and a voice capable of belting out gospel melodies over reverberating distortion, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, AKA the godmother of rock'n'roll, carries a formidable legacy. One of the first gospel singers to find mainstream success in the 1930s, as well as an early musical influence for rockers such as Little Richard and Elvis, Tharpe was a trailblazing celebrity who has since faded in the public consciousness. Set over a single night in 1946, George Brant's two-hander finds Tharpe at a crossroads. Massively popular but facing increasing competition from singer Mahalia Jackson and controversy for taking faith-based music into nightclubs, 31-year-old Tharpe is rethinking her status. Enter the quivering, starstruck young singer Marie Knight, who Tharpe has plucked from obscurity and decided to take on tour with her across the segregated Southern US. Over the course of a rehearsal, Tharpe must persuade Knight to come on the road and revitalise her career in the process. West End musical stalwart Beverley Knight plays Tharpe with aplomb, casting her as a fun-loving elder facing racist America and conservative Christians with an unshakeable sense of song. Stage newcomer Ntombizodwa Ndlovu, meanwhile, is endearing as Marie, fawning over her hero while reassessing her morals. The music is immediate and brilliant, with Knight and Ndlovu reaching a soaring harmony on the swaggering Rock Me, rumbling into a sultry groove on Tharpe's nightclub favourite I Want a Tall Skinny Papa and highlighting Knight's mighty solo vocal on Didn't It Rain. With guitarist Shirley Tetteh and pianist Liam Godwin channelling Tharpe's bluesy feel, decades-old songs are reinvigorated. The script, however, is a disappointment. Overly didactic, with swathes of dialogue telling the audience about Tharpe's life story or the realities of racism but showing little, Brant misses an opportunity to meaningfully examine the difficulties of being a boundary-breaking woman of colour in the 1940s. What might it mean to believe in God when your civil rights are taken away? What motivated Tharpe to tirelessly pursue larger audiences and threaten her church-going audience? The answers won't be found in Marie and Rosetta. Yet, in Knight and Ndlovu's voices we can at least find engaging emotion, bringing Tharpe's powerful music to life once more. At Rose Theatre, Kingston, London, until 24 May. Then at Wolverhampton Grand, 27–31 May and Chichester Festival Theatre 25 June to 26 July
