Mark your cal­en­dars for what is be­ing billed an un­for­get­table the­atri­cal ex­pe­ri­ence! The Trinidad pre­mière of “Queen Of The Road–The Ca­lyp­so Rose Mu­si­cal”–a cap­ti­vat­ing pro­duc­tion cel­e­brat­ing the life and lega­cy of a true icon, the leg­endary Ca­lyp­so Rose will be held on May 10.

Or­gan­is­ers said there will be a gala open­ing of the high­ly ac­claimed pro­duc­tion, writ­ten and di­rect­ed by Rhoma Spencer and pre­sent­ed by YES Pro­duc­tions, at the Cen­tral Bank Au­di­to­ri­um at 7.30 pm, un­der the pa­tron­age of Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo. Re­peat shows will take place on May 11 and 12 at 6.30 pm.

Ca­lyp­so Rose, born Lin­da Mc­Cartha Mon­i­ca Sandy-Lewis from Bethel Vil­lage, To­ba­go, known as the Queen Moth­er and Grand Dame of Ca­lyp­so, is a liv­ing leg­end.

Her de­but clas­sic ca­lyp­so of 1966, ‘Fire Fire’, has been trans­lat­ed in­to over 20 lan­guages, and in 2017, she won the Vic­toires de la Musique Award (French Gram­my). In 2019, she be­came the old­est artiste ever to head­line at the Coachel­la Fes­ti­val in Cal­i­for­nia.

The up­com­ing show is a trib­ute to the re­mark­able jour­ney of Ca­lyp­so Rose (played by Stacey Sobers-Abra­ham, NWAC Ca­lyp­so Queen 2018, ac­tor/singer), whose mu­sic has res­onat­ed with au­di­ences around the globe.

“From hum­ble be­gin­nings to in­ter­na­tion­al ac­claim, this mu­si­cal ex­trav­a­gan­za promis­es to trans­port au­di­ences through the cap­ti­vat­ing rhythms and rich sto­ry­telling of ca­lyp­so,” the re­lease stat­ed.

Speak­ing of Spencer’s work as “trans­gres­sive” and “in­ter­gen­er­a­tional sto­ry­telling”, Dr Ryan Per­sadie shares, “Turn­ing to mem­o­ry, sound, and an­ces­tral spir­it as Spencer’s bi­o­graph­i­cal method and itin­er­ary, Ca­lyp­so Rose reper­toire func­tions as far more than just a col­lec­tion of her life’s work, but pro­vides us with a crit­i­cal archive of Caribbean his­to­ry, mi­gra­tion, and re­sis­tance as we, the au­di­ence mem­bers, are pro­vid­ed with glimpses, shim­mers, and traces of the mak­ing of an Afro-Caribbean fem­i­nist politic that is on­ly made pos­si­ble by at­tun­ing to the vexed in­ti­ma­cies of body, spir­it, sound, and be­ing.”

Tick­ets go on sale from April 2 and will be avail­able for pur­chase at is­landet­ick­ets.com and at Cros­by’s-St James, Ken­ny’s, Queen’s Street, PoS; Trinci­ty Mall and West Mall; Disko­mart-Tu­na­puna; Michelles-Ari­ma; XTRA Foods–En­deav­our and Grand Bazaar.