Gladys Knight brings tradition to new Tropicana residency

Did they forget the laugh?

Onstage and off, the real light comes when Knight throws back her head — sometimes her whole body– and lets it roar.

The 66-year-old singer laughs easily these days, with a return to mainstream recording only topped by seeing her name go up on the vintage Tropicana showroom.

The hotel in the midst of a top-to-bottom makeover returned to its retro roots by giving the R&B legend a resident show, set to run at least through October (and longer if both sides are happy).

A Las Vegan since 1967, Knight says it was "part of her dream" to have her name on the former Tiffany Theatre, "especially after I started seeing people who, outside of Vegas, you wouldn’t know who they were.

"That’s not to say they weren’t talented, don’t get me wrong," she is quick to add. "I don’t need that (for customers) to know who I am, because people have embraced me so wonderfully. But I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if we had representation like that? To see someone of color with a theater.’ "

The new commitment to the Strip is her first since a three-year run at the Flamingo Las Vegas, which started with a bang in 2002 but gradually seemed to run out of steam, diminished by canceled shows and shortened running times for those performed.

Knight maintains she’s lived in the desert long enough that "Vegas throat" is no problem, but described the Flamingo as "such a pull and tug" with management.

"I’m not saying they didn’t enjoy having us there," she says. "(But) when you got somebody that really loves you, you know how they go all out to make you feel that love? Or to let you know that they love you? Well, that’s what’s happening here at the Tropicana."

Knight’s return to the Strip is also a return to a higher secular profile after devoting much of the past decade to recording and performing spiritual music, primarily with the Saints Unified Voices choir she formed after joining the Mormon church.

She laughs again recalling early comments on how she would bring some soul to Mormon music.

"Quite a few black people come to our firesides," she says of testimonial events. "And quite a big number of them are joining the church."

As that goal is accomplished, "You’re going to have all these cultures coming in, which is what’s happening in the church. It’s not me necessarily changing the music, but people coming and bringing all that they are to the church.

"I was saying, y’all may just as well get ready. ‘Cause the people that are coming now are used to saying ‘Amen.’ "

It seems logical that Knight’s transition back to mainstream pop sounds a lot like a gospel song. "Settle" ended up on the soundtrack of last fall’s Tyler Perry movie "For Colored Girls," and Knight performed it from the Apollo Theater float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade.

Husband and co-manager William McDowell brought the song to her, and it immediately grabbed her. " ‘Settle,’ I felt, had that young feel to it, that young beat. But it said something from yesterday: Get up, like our parents told us to do. ‘You don’t have to settle.’

"I have to be aware of the fact — and I am, very — that I’ve been around so long that people that followed me when I was younger, they don’t even go out. They don’t buy records. They don’t do anything anymore," she says. "And there’s a whole new generation to cater to.

"So you got to be able to mix the two. That’s one thing I’ve always prayed to be successful at — being flexible enough to appeal to all ages, all eras and that kind of thing."

Another classic she shared with Tom Jones way back when also gets remade for her upcoming album and the new show. When a young producer played her a hot rhythm track still in search of a melody, she started humming and singing "I (Who Have Nothing)."

"It was such a fresh, new, young, approach," she says, winding up for another great laugh. "R. Kelly? That’s all he’s doing, going back and stealing our stuff and making beaucoup money." She starts to sing: "Did you read my love letter?"… "He’s just doing our music because it’s new to the kids today."

Fans who grew up with Gladys Knight and the Pips might no longer buy albums, but they might shell out for jewelry; Knight’s new line (available in the gift shop, natch) incorporates small vinyl discs as a shout-out to the analog era.

And fans from the old days might recognize the show’s single Pip, brother Bubba (Merald by birth), reprising his Flamingo role as comic sidekick. "We spent about 40 years together. We have a very special relationship, the two of us," she says.

So the show is a mic, a light and a lot of tradition.

"I’m always going back to basics. I never get too far away from what it really is," she says. "In our industry, there are so many avenues and things that you can use to be different. Sometimes different isn’t good."

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.