Patti LaBelle: Pop’s Unrealized Superstar

Patti LaBelle: Pop’s Unrealized Superstar

Patti LaBelle is a literal dramatic soprano. Over the more than five decades of her career, Philadelphia’s Patricia Louise Holt has been known for her impossibly high and spiky “art deco” hair; her grand, animated moves while performing; and a head voice that can be heard from blocks away. She takes up space of every kind; Patti kicks her shoes into the audience, she rolls around on the stage, she flaps her arms like wings. She enters rooms fur-…