Review: I'LL TAKE YOU THERE: STAX RECORDS CO. at Signature Theatre

Signature Theatre’s cabaret series has been mining the riches of the 1960s for some time, from Bacharach to Woodstock, with repeat visits to Motown. A new show diverges to Memphis for its own flavor of gritty soul and the gems that came from its own indelible record label.

“I’ll Take You There: Stax Record Co.” is the revue devised by Mark C. Meadows and directed by Sean-Maurice Lynch meant to span the riches of the homegrown label that brought us Otis Redding, Carla Thomas and the Staples Singers, whose 1972 hit gives the show its name.

It’s left to just two singers, Kanysha Williams and Isaac “Deacon Izzy” Bell, to tackle the dozen or so hits. But it’s fitting that it’s left to the talented quintet of musicians to start out the show with the instrumental that helped put the Stax label on its feet, “Green Onions” by Booker T & the MG’s.

The Dramatics’ “Whatcha See is Whatcha Get” would seem an unusual choice as the first vocal selection. The 1971 hit came toward the end of Stax’ decade long reign as hitmakers. But it fit Bell’s warm voice well and helped ease into the show as it gained momentum.

He followed it with another left turn, Albert King’s “Born Under a Bad Sign,” a blues song audiences might more associate with Cream, the British rock band who covered it. 

Williams, in a bright flowered dress, followed with “What a Man,” by Linda Lyndell, which, like King’s song, barely made the R&B Top 50, but was more widely known when Salt-N-Pepa covered it with En Vogue in 1993. But Williams quickly shifted in a medley to a hit better associated with the Stax sound, Jean Knight’s “Mr. Big Stuff.”

But it was when the two teamed up for Sam & Dave’s signature “Hold On, I’m Comin’” that they really reached the heart of what Stax was all about. 

Still, it’s tough to replicate a sound so dependent on horns with just one saxophone (Mike Paxton). (Maybe all the horns in Shirlington were went to the adjoining produciton of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum").

But there was a real struggle trying to replicate Isaac Hayes’ Grammy-winning “Theme from ‘Shaft’” live, partly because most of what musical director De’ante Haggerty-Willis was doing on guitar — and what keyboardist Sequoia Snyder was doing on keyboards — were so low in the mix.

Only when either were doing solos were they heard over the drums and bass of Joey Antico and Delorean Fullington.  

Things rallied when Williams took her time to introduce Shirley Brown’s “Woman to Woman,” replicating its phone call warning to a would-be mistress. The song’s drama well-suited a theater-trained singer, and she drove home what was the label’s last big hit in 1974.

As the recent four-part HBO documentary “Stax: Soulsville, U.S.A.” demonstrated, there are a lot of stories behind the big songs, and not all of them got told. So Bell handled the always-welcome “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay” without mentioning it was the last song Otis Redding recorded before he died in a plane crash days later in 1967 (and that the song became the first posthumous No. 1).

Redding’s material continues to have a strong pull, and Bell was good at bringing it out, both on that and on “Try a Little Tenderness.”

And while the revue was sure to have some other solid Stax highlights in there, from Eddie Floyd’s “Knock on Wood” to Carla Thomas’ “Gee Whiz” (which might have been arranged a tad too slowly) to the inevitable “Soul Man” in an encore, there were lots of curveballs, from Little Milton’s “Blue Monday” to a wacky medley that went from Rufus Thomas’ first hit, “Walkin’ the Dog,” to his last one, “Do the Funny Penguin,” before turing to the disco-era Bar-Kays’ hit “Holy Ghost.” 

Ending with a pair of Staples Singers songs, “Respect Yourself” and the revue’s title song, ensured uplift and made one hopeful for future forays to Memphis, perhaps with whole shows dedicated to Redding or the Staples. 

Running Time: About 80 minutes, no intermission. 

“I’ll Take You There: Stax Records” continues at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington, Va  through Nov. 24. Tickets available online. 

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