Marie and Rosetta at the Rose Theatre, Kingston: magnificent singing, pedestrian script

Beverley Knight and Ntombizodwa Ndlovu in Marie and Rosetta - (Marc Brenner)

The great soul singer and actress Beverley Knight often transcends the theatrical material she’s given. So it proves again in this two-hander about pioneering gospel singer and guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe and her mentorship of the younger Marie Knight, played with pleasing synchronicity by relative newcomer Ntombizodwa Ndlovu.

The singing from both leads is magnificent, the acting passionate but the script by American writer George Brant is pedestrian and heavy on exposition. In some ways this is inevitable. Although Tharpe was hugely popular in the 30s and 40s and inspired everyone from Elvis Presley to Jimi Hendrix, she has been shamefully sidelined.