Wichita theater group’s salute to Aretha Franklin becomes tribute after singer’s death
For 22 years, the last three with her own Forum Theatre Company, Kathryn Page Hauptman has produced “Words & Music” concerts in Wichita, with each focused on a certain performer, composer or theme.
After the success of last spring’s tribute to gospel pioneer Mahalia Jackson, Hauptman came up with a logical follow-up for this fall’s show – Aretha Franklin.
“I immediately began to think of Aretha because Mahalia was such an influence of hers,” Hauptman said. “It just seemed like a good fit because Aretha had all the popularity and five decades of musical contributions.”
A few weeks into the rehearsals, on Aug. 16, came the news that Franklin had died at age 76 and the salute turned into a tribute.
Nothing in the concert changed with the news of Franklin’s death, said Hauptman and Anjelica McRae Breathett, co-directors of this weekend’s “Words & Music” performance.
But the worldwide adulation for the Queen of Soul has caused an increase in ticket sales. With one performance already sold out and the other close to it, a third performance – at 7 p.m. Sunday – has been added.
Nineteen songs, as well as two medleys, will be performed by Breathett, Ted Dvorak, Adrienne Degraftenreed, Robert Barnes, Jaslyn Alexander and Kalene Blanton. Hauptman and Degraftenreed are the emcees.
Guests will sit at tables, and dessert and coffee will be served. Other “Words & Music” tributes this season will be musical composer Richard Rodgers, scheduled for Jan. 12-13, and country legend Dolly Parton, happening March 16-17.
As with other “Words & Music” performances, the audience will get a glimpse into the background of Franklin.
“We’re going to try and show the roots of her development, what influenced her,” Hauptman said.
It was gospel music that first garnered attention for Franklin, the daughter of a Baptist pastor from Detroit.
Record labels tried to steer Franklin’s early career into slow jazz, with her first single an arrangement of “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody,” which Hauptman called “atypical to everything that Aretha stood for.”
Franklin spoke up and began to steer her own fortune. That inspired Breathett, a North Carolina-born, classically trained lyric soprano who has performed across the country and had a master class under Renee Fleming, featured last weekend at Arizona Sen. John McCain’s funeral.
“She influenced me as an artist because I know, despite what I’ve gone through, I know I can rise above,” said Breathett, who moved to Wichita with her husband less than a year ago and teaches music at Clark Elementary in Wichita.
Breathett also admired the diversity of Franklin, who famously stepped in at the last minute for an ailing Luciano Pavarotti during the 1998 Grammy Awards to sing the opera aria “Nessun dorma.”
“Aretha loved opera, and her favorite singer was Maria Callas,” Breathett said. “Just to know this gospel girl loves opera gives a new side to Aretha.”
Franklin released 131 singles from 1956 to 2014, and whittling that down to 19-plus for the performance was difficult. The concert is scheduled to begin with the song “I’m Every Woman,” which both Hauptman and Breathett said exemplifies Franklin’s spirit.
“You know we have to do ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water.’ It’s so beautifully arranged,” Breathett said. “And you know we have to slam it out with ‘R-E-S-P-E-C-T.’”
‘WORDS & MUSIC -- ARETHA FRANKLIN: THE QUEEN OF SOUL’
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday
Where: Wilke Center, First United Methodist Church, Third and Topeka
Tickets: $20, by calling 316-618-0444
This story was originally published September 5, 2018 at 9:48 AM.