R.E.S.P.E.C.T. – A Celebration of the Music of Aretha Franklin

Jeremy Daniel

We’ve seen quite a few shows come through town highlighting the careers of popular artists or businesses, like Motown, Jersey Boys, Ain’t Too Proud, Beautiful, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical and Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, some good, some great and one in particular that was a big slice of cheese. While all of those musicals included the popular tunes we all know, they also built a story around those songs, often putting the plot in a secondary position to the music. Now another show about an iconic performer is hitting the road, R.E.S.P.E.C.T. – A Celebration of the Music of Aretha Franklin, but this one comes with a twist — it actually is just a celebration of Ms. Franklin’s music.

When the curtain goes up on R.E.S.P.E.C.T., we’re presented with a video of, I presume, Ms. Franklin’s funeral (or just a funeral) to remind us that the Queen is dead, a disembodied voice singing ‘Amazing Grace’. As the memorial ends and the lights come up, we’re greeted by three ‘Hosts’ (YahZarah, Meghan Dawson and Terrell Foster-James in this production) and a five piece band with a multi-level stage and the letters RESPECT in lights on the top platform. No, this is not a scripted show about the life of Aretha Franklin with actors attempting to do impressions of people we know and don’t know who came through her life. Instead, our Hosts take us on a musical journey through Ms. Franklin’s life, relating some personal information about the singer — from her tragic childhood to her arrival in New York, her relationship with Sam Cooke, her marriages, her fear of flying, why she always appeared on stage with her purse later in life and more — punctuated with some of her most well-known songs … and some we may not know but that she had a personal connection with. It’s a unique approach, and it works because the Hosts don’t try to imitate Ms. Franklin or even copy the arrangements of her songs, which does make this a tribute rather than professional karaoke. And while the three Hosts tell us it’s just the three of them performing, it’s not long before Host 4, Chela Faulkner, enters and while not imitating Franklin, she does give off a serious Aretha vibe and truly brings the show to life. It felt like a lot of people really weren’t sure what they were watching for the first few numbers but once they got into her hits, everyone got into the groove.

The moment that really hit the audience was Terrell Foster-James channeling Sam Cooke with a powerful, hard-hitting and emotional performance of ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’, with the video screen running a montage of racial strife in the country past and present. Foster-James had the audience on its feet at the end of the song and made us all ponder how almost 60 years later that that change still hasn’t come. Really powerful stuff. And delving into Franklin’s early life, the Hosts briefly mention her older sister Erma Franklin, who had a hit with the song ‘Piece of My Heart’ in 1967, two years before Janis Joplin covered it. Oddly, the choice was made to perform Joplin’s harder rock version of the song rather than Erma’s, which may have confused some of the audience if they hadn’t been listening closely. The show also touches on Ms. Franklin’s career difficulties when the Disco Era of the 1970s took over, and even though she recorded four disco albums, none of them produced any long-lasting hits (but they do perform one but without a program from the show, I don’t know what the title was).

Jeremy Daniel

The four hosts all do a great job of performing the songs, all of them with powerful voices, and delivering them in their own style. They also have a good rapport with each other, and engage with the audience as well, doing all they can to get people out of their seats. The crowd really got into things when ‘Chain of Fools’ was performed, and one of the highlights of the evening had to be when Foster-James took over the keyboard to accompany his three co-Hosts as they each took a verse of ‘Natural Woman’. The performance of one of my favorite classics, ‘I Say a Little Prayer’, brought a few tears of joy to my eyes. In the second act, the show moves later into her career, highlighting the last minute performance of ‘Nessun Dorma’ at the Grammys when Pavarotti fell ill (with a brilliant performance by Faulkner), and moved into her late 1980s era with ‘Freeway of Love’, and her duets with George Michael (‘I Knew You Were Waiting’) and Eurythmics (‘Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves) … but skipped over ‘Who’s Zoomin’ Who?’

While the presentation of Aretha’s history and music is in chronological order, they do skip over two of her most iconic songs, saving both ‘Think’ and ‘Respect’ to close the show. And that’s really when the audience got to their feet, clapped and sang along. How could you not? The band was terrific, the singing was out of this world, the energy, the vibe from the performers was electric. R.E.S.P.E.C.T. – A Celebration of the Music of Aretha Franklin may not have been what the audience was expecting at first, but with all of that classic music and energetic performances, it was an evening to enjoy, to remember, to celebrate the legacy of the Queen of Soul, Miss Aretha Franklin.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T. – A Celebration of the Music of Aretha Franklin runs about 2 hours 15 minutes with one intermission.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T. – A Celebration of the Music of Aretha Franklin will play a series of one night shows in various cities including Charleston SC, Clearwater, Daytona Beach, Key West, FL, Birmingham AL, Knoxville TN and Charlotte NC. Visit the official website for more information. Use our Ticketmaster link below to find tickets in your area.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T. – A Celebration of the Music of Aretha Franklin — National Tour Trailer