O.C. POP REVIEW : Solo Gladys Has Great Knight Out

Most likely you’ll see the Angels win a World Series before you see another pop star named Gladys come along.

It’s a name of the hearth, not the spotlight. But the genius of Gladys Knight’s show Friday night at the Celebrity Theatre was her ability to dominate the spotlight while exuding an embracing, homey warmth that made the 2,500-seat theater in the round seem like a kitchen or a living room.

It was up to the veteran soul star, now 47, to provide the kindling herself. Knight was operating with no Pips (she’s a solo act these days, while her sidekick trio of song-and-dance male relatives takes a break from performing), and her band and backup singers were confined to a stage-side pit. Knight, who jokingly dubbed her bare-bones production “Gladys Knight: A Mike and a Light,” had no trouble carrying the show on her own.

Her glittering white gown and silver high heels might have been designed for the spotlight, and so was some of her material, including such pop-diva ballads as “Wind Beneath My Wings.” But Knight herself seemed less a diva (with the element of lofty standoffishness that the term implies) than an earthy product of some vibrant Gospel church.

As she sang, Knight would punch the air with a fist, throw up her hands in heavenward hosannas, and stomp or skitter in those heels on the lively numbers, or exude dignified grace on the ballads. Her show contained plenty of pure-soul gems to go with soul-inflected redemptions of middle-of-the-road material.

Between numbers, Knight would deliver the gospel of human relations according to Gladys, prefacing songs of friendship, romantic yearning, or isolation with neighborly, gently humorous advice. With her easygoing chat and her warm singing style, Knight established a connection with her fans that was effortless and natural. In return, she reaped affection--including a standing ovation after “Wind Beneath My Wings,” and a chivalrous kiss on the hand from a male admirer who stood up and beckoned her with outstretched arms and a look of utter adoration.

The way Knight structured her show had something to do with establishing that close bond with her fans. The first few songs, capped by “That’s What Friends Are For,” had a welcoming tone. Then she began exploring and commenting on emotional experiences that are universal. A couple of plaintive ballads, the old Miracles hit, “The Tracks of My Tears,” and “Waiting on You,” from her current “Good Woman” album, were full of soulful yearning.

“Superwoman,” also from the new album, was a vehicle for spiraling soul-singing fireworks as Knight was joined on stage by backup singers Vonciele Faggett and Alice Echols. The song offered a potent mixture of feelings, half pleading and half demanding that men not saddle women with impossible expectations while giving little emotional support or appreciation in return. Next came a more hopeful domestic vision, “Make Yours a Happy Home,” in which Knight offered reciprocity: no superwoman herself, she wouldn’t require the impossible from a man--”You don’t have to be a superstar,” went the lyric, “I love you just the way you are.”

Having explored love’s ups and downs in ballads and at mid-tempo pace, Knight delivered a blazing clincher with “On and On,” in which the band laid down a beat of almost primitive rawness behind as she sang with taut, smoldering intensity about the effort needed to make love work.

Knight folded most of the signature hits of her career into a long medley--usually a dubious move designed to toss off material that a star is sick of singing, but that an audience insists on hearing. But this medley was full of energy and momentum, as Knight found a core of excitement in snippets from “If I Were Your Woman,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “Midnight Train to Georgia” and several others.

The only thing missing from Knight’s 90-minute show was a satisfying ending. After the medley of her own hits, she drifted through a series of truncated cover songs, ranging from the churchy “I’ll Take You There” to a saloon-style “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” The approach was in keeping with the show’s homey, friends-gathered-in-a-living-room quality, but it was a living room at the embers of a fun evening, when revelers are winding down after the real party has finished. Knight would have been better off saving a few of those hits she spun during the medley, so she could sing them for a full-on finale.