This is the 50th anniversary year for Philadelphia International Records, the outfit founded by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff that gave us, among many other things, “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia), the ebullient instrumental by MFSB, given life as the theme of “Soul Train” and used to great effect once more in the Round House Theatre’s online production of “A Boy and His Soul.”
It’s Colman Domingo’s award-winning one man show about a man named Jay who returns to his parents house to sort through stuff in the basement before its sale and is stopped cold when he stumbles upon a crate of old records. Each one brings with it a memory and a story. Together, they’re a tapestry of not only a life but a whole community.
Stevie Wonder’s “Song in the Key of Life” – out of its sleeve and still on the hi-fi — is the first disc that gives him a jolt. But it’s the No. 1 hit by the Philly soul musicians known as MFSB – which stood for Mother Father Sister Brother – that starts the floodgates flowing.
The Round House production, directed by Craig Wallace, is the first major production of the memoir that didn’t also star its author. But darned if Ro Boddie doesn’t embody not just Domingo’s reminiscing character Jay, but also everybody in the family the author created, from a loving single mother who sets Jay on the path of loving soul music, to a supportive stepdad, a tough guy brother who’s really a sweetheart, and a tough girl sister (whose theme song is Donna Summers’ “Bad Girl”). Plus uncles and aunties and by the end of the piece, Boddie is able to suggest each of what becomes a large cast with a look, a stance, or a tone of voice.