With the curtain set to rise on the much-anticipated “Queen Of The Road- The Calypso Rose Musical,” Your Caribbean Guide embarked on a mission to learn a bit about the inspiration that ignited this creative endeavor.

We had the opportunity to chat with Rhoma Spencer, the visionary behind this masterful project. During our brief but insightful exchange, she unveiled the meticulous process behind the creation of this groundbreaking production, offering insights into its significance for Caribbean culture and the challenges faced along the way.

“It all began in 1995 when I did The Bassman, a musical on the Mighty Shadow,” she reminisced.

She planned to produce Fire, Fire, the Calypso Rose Musical the following year but things didn’t go as planned. 

According to Spencer, inspiration struck again, causing her to revisit the Calypso Rose project after she saw the Tina Turner Musical in London.

“Right away, the inspiration came again… it was a perfect example of, you know, what that musical would look like, where you take the discography of the artists to tell their story. When 2017 rolled around, and she won the Victoire award in Paris, that’s the French Grammy,I said, this is the time to do it.”

Spencer visited the iconic singer for two days in 2019. 

“I interviewed her and just, you know, talked about her childhood growing up to be able to move from Tobago to Trinidad, entering the Calypso arena, the struggles and trials and triumphs… those were all parts of the stories she told me and that is what I used to shape the play, in addition to the fact that I had to listen to music from like 1966 to 2017, various albums and of course, CDs to decide what music will make it into the musical. At first, I had problems because I found that a lot of the songs that I was hearing what we will call male bashing or smutty songs and I was like, wow, I have to continue listening to find the ones that I feel will speak to the story.”

 The writer and director told YCG this project was only made possible through her residency at the Queer Trans and Research Lab at the University of Toronto.

“I had one academic year to develop this piece and then book in the residency with a showcase at Hart House Theatre in Toronto.”

Asked to comment on the importance of this project and others like it, she said it’s critical to the preservation of culture. 

“This is legacy work and the only way we could document this kind of work is through things like this. It could be musicals, it could be dramatic productions, it could be films…”

Looking back at her early days in Canada, Spencer recalled seeing regular infomercials on television through which she was able to learn about historical events, icons and other useful information about her new home.

She believes a similar approach to information-sharing by media houses in Trinidad and Tobago could go a long way toward preserving the legacies of national icons like Beryl McBurnie, Len “Boogsie” Sharpe, and Astor Johnson.

“You know, this generation doesn’t know these people… who is Calypso Rose? The story of Shadow and we going down the road. We have Dr Eric Williams, our father or the nation. This is one little way we can disseminate information of our icons so that the public and especially the younger people can just have for one moment in time, an understanding and history of our national icons, our national events or even simple things like our past criminals you know people like Boisie Singh. These are things my mother would have told me but this generation doesn’t know about these characters. You know, all of that could be done just via a video or video byte for one to two minutes as fillers on the television. In addition, you have playwrights who can write plays about these events and these characters, whether it’s a play or musical…”

Spencer explained that she opted for a musical approach for this retelling of Calypso Rose’s story as it presents the perfect medium through which more of her lesser-known music could be shared.

Her commitment to authenticity led her to immerse herself in Calypso Rose’ extensive discography, meticulously selecting the songs that could be seamlessly woven into the fabric of the narrative.

“It was a journey of rediscovery,” she said, recounting the process of sifting through decades of musical treasures to unearth the gems that would help propel the story forward.

“One of the beautiful things about Queen Of The Road is you’ll hear music that you never heard before on the radio simply because these calypsonians will put out an album with twelve songs on it and the radio will only play one or two from the album so we only know these two songs. We only know Fire Fire, we only know Tempo and we only know Do Dem Back. Those are the ones we know but there are so many others, it’s amazing…”

Beyond her stellar contributions to music during her illustrious, decades-long career, Calypso Rose was also a champion for women’s rights.

“I don’t think that was ever articulated in anything that she did…in interviewing she said when she decided to sing Calypso and was you know, selected to be in the Calypso tent, she was concerned with giving women back the power because she was disgusted and tired of the treatment of women in Calypsos by men. She wanted to counteract that with her compositions, that is what I want people to take away when they come to see the work. She did a song called No Madame, that song triggered and inspired the Domestic Workers Act as a piece of legislation. When Dr. Williams heard that song he brought it to Parliament that domestic workers be regularized in terms of the wage that they get and the conditions that they should be looking under. So yeah, that’s what I would love to see people take away from the play that she was interested in and a voice for women’s rights and giving power back to women.”

The role of Calypso Rose will be played by Calypsonian Stacey Sobers in the musical production set to launch tonight. Spencer explained that even before she wrote the play, she knew that she wanted Sobers to be her Rose.

“I just felt she looked like Rose in her younger days. I contacted her and laid out my idea and she was honored and said to me that some people call her young Rose, I wasn’t even aware of it.”

The play is set to premier on Friday May 10 at the Central Bank Auditorium, under the patronage of her Excellency Christine KangalooO.R.T.T, President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

Repeat shows are scheduled for May 11th and 12th at 6:30pm.