“The Otis Redding Story” (Try A Little Tenderness), Black Ensemble Theater. If you walk out of this production without having clapped your hands to or hummed along with some of Otis Redding’s tunes, you better take a moment to check your pulse. The artists celebrating “the messenger of soul” are so exuberant and joyful in their portrayals that the energy of Redding’s music pours from the stage through the audience. Penned and directed by collaborators Jackie Taylor and Jimmy Tillman, “The Otis Redding Story” not only gives an overview of the singer’s tragically short life but places his contributions in their social and historical context. Taylor and Tillman’s major theme is that it’s not so much our length of time on earth as what we do with it that matters, a theory proven by Redding’s soulful music, from classics like “Mr. Pitiful” to “Respect.”
