Soul legend James Brown once famously wailed, “This is a man’s world/But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl.”
For many female musical icons whose harmonies have been immortalized in history, those lyrics still ring true—especially when it comes to The Shirelles.
Before The Supremes or Martha and the Vandellas, this squad of New Jersey school girls redefined ’60s pop and soul as the first Black girl group.
“The magnitude of The Shirelles didn’t really hit me until we did the first show. My eyes almost fell out of my face,” says Ané Marshall, a Las Vegas musician who performed with The Shirelles from 1990 to 2016.
Marshall associated the reputable girl group with music her father enjoyed. But after being offered a spot in the revamped group, she got to witness their stardom firsthand.
Their chart-topping 1960 hit “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” appeared in Dirty Dancing and has been covered by Amy Winehouse and Taylor Swift. And in 1996, The Shirelles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, alongside the likes of David Bowie and Pink Floyd.
If music is also a man’s world, it too wouldn’t be anything without a woman or a girl. That’s the impetus behind Marshall’s new production It’s a Man’s World…Buttt, scheduled to run May 19 at Myron’s.
Throughout the show, Marshall points praise to legendary entertainers like James Brown, Smokey Robinson and Little Anthony and the Imperials, but she never leaves the ladies out of the equation. This vocal powerhouse leaves an indelible stamp on many male-fronted classics, harnessing an unbottled sense of feminine energy that’s equally felt and heard.
“This is a man’s world. I know a lot of women don’t like to admit that. But that doesn’t negate the fact that we’re valued and we’re important,” Marshall says. “This is a man’s world, but wait one minute: Don’t leave us out. It is really talking about women doing what they love and not getting stuck in places that were just originally thought of for men.”
During her days performing with The Shirelles, male groups always closed the show. But what if a woman were the bombastic intro and the finale? Driven by her love for show business, the singer promises this will be a production of pure pageantry.
“A lot of young people have attended the shows and they are floored because they think it’s gonna be this old, decrepit lady coming on stage and can hardly breathe. What it really is, is a shining example of the true testimony to Las Vegas,” she says. “I have showgirls. I have a tapper. I have background singers. I have a full orchestra. I have a female percussionist. I have costumes. I have stories because I’ve shared the stage with so many icons.”
The point isn’t to negate but to celebrate entertainers from both camps in the only way Marshall knows how: By giving audiences a hell of a show.
“What can they expect? They can expect, for an hour and a half, to be taken higher,” she says.
It’s a Man’s World…Buttt May 19, 3 p.m., $39-$69, Myron’s, thesmithcenter.com.
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