Soul singer Beverley Knight stars in musical about crossing racial divides

Beverley Knight is to star in the British premiere of an award-winning show about music and racism — and says that the storyline is personal.

Memphis, by Joe DiPietro and Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan, is inspired by a white radio DJ in the Fifties who crossed racial divides to bring black music to a wider audience.

Knight plays Felicia, a club singer ready for her big break who he falls in love with. The British soul singer said the story had particular resonance for her, as her husband’s background is Irish while she is of Jamaican descent — a union that would not have been permitted in many US states in the Fifties. “The idea that if we had both lived in the States up to 30 years ago our relationship would have been illegal is insanity. I can’t quite get my head around that,” she said.

“But also, on a much wider scale for us here in Britain, there’s so much still going on with racial tensions. These issues are relevant now.”

The musical opens at Shaftesbury Theatre in October. It is inspired by the career of DJ “Daddy-O” Dewey Phillips, whose pioneering Memphis radio show mixed R&B, country, boogie-woogie and jazz. Knight, currently starring in hit show The Bodyguard, said she had always been desperate to be in it: “I know the music of the era and the historical context so well that if I didn’t do it I thought I was going to die. But I got the best of both worlds.”

She added: “I’m in my fourth decade, being a woman, being — to a lesser extent — a woman of colour, it’s all supposed to be woe, woe, woe. But it’s been opportunity on opportunity. It’s just fantastic.”

David Bryan, 52, said his only previous experience of musicals as “a white Jewish boy from Edison, New Jersey” was Fiddler On The Roof. For Memphis he created an original score with its roots in the rhythm and blues of the period.

He said what he loved about the show was that “it celebrates what brings us together, not what separates us. It feels so honest. It’s not showbusiness singing and dancing”.

He added that while he was more used to performing himself — to three million people in more than 100 shows last year — it was “wild” watching his musical, which won four Tony Awards on Broadway. “It’s as exciting as hell.”

Memphis previews from October 9. Bryan said he expected his Bon Jovi bandmates to attend the opening on October 23.