R.E.S.P.E.C.T. brings the magic of Motown music to Phoenix for one final evening

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) – R.E.S.P.E.C.T. has one closing present Sunday evening in Phoenix, celebrating the life and occasions of the enduring Aretha Franklin.

Tonight’s exhibiting is at 6 p.m. on the Orpheum Theatre, and you can find tickets here. This efficiency may have you singing one second and tearfully listening to the following, highlighting a few of Aretha’s best hits corresponding to “Pure Girl,” “Assume,” “Chain of Fools,” and naturally, “R.E.S.P.E.C.T!”

This present relies on t RESPECT- The Aretha Franklin Story, starring Angie Narayan. The present’s artistic crew is led by Christiana Sajous of Spongebob Squarepants and Spider-Man: Flip off the Darkish fame, with Darnell White main the Music Route. Forged member Meghan Dawson, starring as Host 2, simply accomplished a stint as Tudor Queen Catherine Parr within the award-winning musical Six! The Musical.

Dawson mentioned she began performing for an viewers of one- herself in her bed room as a baby. “I grew up singing in my room and no one knew I sang, except it was my mother yelling at me asking me to cease,” she mentioned, laughing. “I used to sing with headphones on. I’d be screaming, acting at Madison Sq. Gardens in my thoughts!”

Dawson mentioned she determined to pursue music in her senior 12 months in highschool and jumped headfirst into an Opera efficiency diploma. “I used to be then accepted into an intensive in New York Metropolis that actually solidified that musical theatre is actually what I need to do,” she mentioned. After the intensive, Dawson mentioned she joined up with Movie star Cruise Traces as a performer for a number of years earlier than becoming a member of the solid of Six!

“I auditioned for Respect round February (2022), after which we started with the primary solid in September. We did a number of workshopping with the present and script,” Dawson mentioned. “Now, I’ve been bumped as much as dance captain, affiliate choreographer- I gotta maintain my head on a swivel!” She mentioned that out of all of the numbers, her favourite and concurrently most difficult is “Rock Regular.”

“All people within the band will get a solo, everybody will get a shoutout and introduced- that music is actually 1000% occasion,” Dawson mentioned. “I’m doing my excessive belting, leaping throughout doing loopy stuff…it’s such a change that’s flipped. After the intermission, I am going from being a background singer to abruptly being Michael Jackson at Madison Sq. Backyard. I imply, that’s the adrenaline I would like in that second!”

In the case of the songs themselves, Dawson mentioned she has but to get uninterested in listening to them, regardless of being a part of R.E.S.P.E.C.T. for almost a 12 months. “We have now gospel, now we have acapella music, now we have R&B, jazz, blues, rock n roll, pop, opera. We have now actually a few of every thing in that present. It’s not even simply solely Aretha’s music both…it’s really slightly little bit of every thing,” she mentioned.

Dawson added that for individuals who may not be the largest fan of musical efficiency, there are many anecdotes and information about Aretha and lots of different Motown and R&B artists of the identical age that viewers members will get pleasure from. “Even in the event you’ve seen every thing you may ever see about Aretha you’ll nonetheless study one thing and revel in one thing about this present,” she mentioned.

She added that having been a part of the unique solid; she’s so grateful for the chance to have performed so many alternative variants of the present. “That unique cast- we went by means of loads collectively and this present couldn’t be what it’s immediately with out that unique solid placing in that work and time,” she mentioned.

Enjoyable Truth: Aretha Franklin carried out on Sept. 13, 1970, on the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum!

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