GLADYS KNIGHT

BY ED BRUCE edbrucevegas@yahoo.com

NEGATIVES FIRST AND THERE ARE PLENTY TO GO AROUND....THOUGH IT WAS NOT ALL BAD...IT WAS CERTAINLY NOT ALL GOOD !

IT WAS LATE... 12 MINUTES....FIRST AND FOREMOST A LACK OF RESPECT FOR PATRONS AND THE OPPORTUNITY FOR THIS REVIEWER TO DEDUCT ONE POINT FROM THE SHOW GRADE SCORE FOR EVERY MINUTE LATE...SO ITS 88 TO START.

Gladys Knight, 67 in May opening the Gladys Knight showroom at the Tropicana on the Las Vegas strip...this in the old Folies Berge showroom...a task to tall to climb for any act.

Knight working on husband number four with one and a quarter PIPS is certainly likeable and full of love if not talent...her voice is strong for 67 and her stage presence admirable. I would have prefered a tighter show with some standards I could recognize but maybe none exist...I can't put my hand a signature song or story line to carry the load. Lots of dead time and cat calls from the audience...my wife said toooooo.... long.....812 start 956 finish...lots of down time and slow transitions. Some second half standards were not arranged to my taste !

Amazingly enough it was not too loud, altho the drums managed to kill lots of the lyrics in an ongoing theme almost everywhere. 6 dancers...6 musicians and one and a quarter pips...still don't know what a pip is and I don't want too.

Imitation hosts and ushers reseated people up front through out the show...kind of tacky...not for me from the back row where I was close enough in a theatre my wife called hot and uncomfortable.

I want Gladys to succeed and do well same as everyone else...she just has nothing I can recognize and relate too....just mostly NOISE.

The highlite for me was a black and white photo montage which included Knight as child with one of my heroes Nat King Cole.

There were some production numbers with hoops and whistles and smoke and videos and props and minimal dance which I personally like. Pretty good crowd for Thursday night at the Tropicana which is rebuilding and refurnishing and relocating their parking lots...a challenge for those who like things the way they were !

76 C