IF YOU DON’T KNOW HIM BY NOW You can learn about Pendergrass as played by Mcllvaine.

Photo: Ken Simmons

Teddy Pendergrass, undisputed soul superstar (and sex symbol) of the ’70s and ’80s, doesn’t really go in much for self-analysis. Ask him how he views his place in rhythm & blues history, or what it was like working with renowned Philadelphia soul producers Gamble and Huff, and he’ll say he’ll “leave that to you music critics.” But the former lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes (and the survivor of enormous medical trauma) was so gratified that Jackie Taylor’s Black Ensemble Theater chose to honor his career, he and cowriter Bill Jolly penned three new songs for the production, I Am Who I Am (The Story of Teddy Pendergrass). “The process is very humbling,” he says.

During his heyday in the late ’70s and early ’80s, in the postdisco era when it seemed soul music was dominated by producers more than performers, Pendergrass was one of the few distinctive voices. In the early ’70s, he had a good run of hits with Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, including “If You Don’t Know Me By Now,” “Wake Up Everybody” and “Bad Luck.” But it was hard to get recognition in a group where the guy getting top billing was not the lead singer (and none of the other members were credited on the album covers). By their third LP (1975’s To Be True), they were known as “Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes featuring Theodore Pendergrass.”

Although the singer says he “was pretty much a team player” during his time with the group, he adds, “I won’t go through what I did to get my name on the cover, but it was time [for that recognition to happen].” On the cover of the album that followed (Wake Up Everybody), the “featuring Theodore Pendergrass” bit mysteriously disappeared. In a couple of years’ time, he branched out on his own, no longer a featured act but the main attraction. Although he’d taken a year off, his solo career hit the ground running in 1977. The fact that he wasn’t too hard to look at evidently didn’t hurt; he was promoted extensively as a sex symbol during this period and even performed special women-only concerts.

But his life was irrevocably altered in March of 1982, when a car crash left him a quadriplegic. Despite this, his string of hits didn’t really slow down until halfway through the ’90s. By that time, he didn’t need another hit; he was a bona-fide institution, his reputation set in cement.

While Pendergrass had his first solo hits right when disco took off, he’s quick to add that he wasn’t a part of that wave. “I did not subscribe to disco,” Pendergrass says. “But I did understand what might be in vogue,” adds the singer, acknowledging he recorded a few songs close to that style. “There were several artists who put their nuts in one basket with disco, but from the beginning all my music has been varied.”

I Am What I Am uses two actors to portray the man: Rashawn Thompson plays Pendergrass at the outset of his career, while Kevin Mcllvaine plays an older, mature version of the singer. Writer-director Jackie Taylor, whose many revues about African-American musicians often have chronicled the lives of the deceased, was able to consult with the subject himself this time. “[After] I wrote the script and sent it to him,” Taylor says, “Teddy made comments, corrections and filled in some information that was not there, and approved the script.”

Pendergrass admits he was cautious in handing his life over to Taylor—his agent was involved throughout the process—but says he couldn’t be happier with the outcome. “I am a creative person and I don’t think anybody knows me better than me,” Pendergrass says. “But [Taylor] is very talented; she knows what she is doing. She’s intelligent, not pretentious.”

As far as the play itself, “The ultimate purpose of doing this is to show that through hard times there can still be good times,” Pendergrass says. “You can move on and still have a positive and productive life. I want to show the audience that despite the tragedy, I am driven and successful at what I do—and still continue to be a productive individual.”

I Am Who I Am is playing at the Black Ensemble Theater.