In 1939, a young woman from Cotton Plant, Arkansas, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, stitched together a musical palette of Mississippi Delta, Chicago blues, Philadelphia church music, and New York swing to create an entirely new sound, and in the process, became the most renowned female gospel singer and musician of the day and is considered by many to be the “Godmother of Rock’ n’ Roll.”

The Gospel Electric explores her musical coming of age and her navigation of a segregated, male driven, and spiritually overbearing society. Combining original songs as well as motifs and songs from Tharpe herself, the new work asks the question, “who decides what ‘holy’ sounds like?”

This is the third and final installment a trilogy of theatrical, immersive live concerts intended for young audiences (age 10 and up) and their families each surrounding a different prominent woman in music history, while reimagining what a concert and music theater experience for young people can be. Each features original music by the performers and asks young people to grapple with new ideas about the impact of art.