After seeing “Motown The Musical,” I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day.
I can’t help myself.
Yes, the show’s book by Motown founder Berry Gordy is a bit of a mess. Sure, the transitions between scenes are uneven. And yes, director Charles Randolph-Wright often seems overwhelmed or, more likely, intimidated.
None of that matters.
What’s important is that this trip down memory lane is packed with wonderful entertainment, fabulous songs and dynamic performances. It makes you smile, dance and sing as it captures the energy, joy, heart and excitement of the music.
The show begins with songs by The Four Tops and The Temptations. It’s 1983 in Pasadena, Calif., the night of “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever,” the reunion that brought many of the record label’s best-known stars and acts together for one big celebration. (When it aired on TV about eight weeks later, the show — best known for Michael Jackson’s performance of “Billie Jean,” featuring the moonwalk — was seen by more than 47 million people.)
Gordy (Brandon Victor Dixon) is not part of the fun, however. He’s at his Los Angeles home sulking, upset that the artists he helped create (including Diana Ross, The Jackson 5 and Marvin Gaye) left him for other companies.
The jukebox musical then flashes back to 1938. Junior, as Gordy’s family called him throughout his life, is a young boy, thrilled that heavyweight champion Joe Louis just defeated Max Schmeling. Young Berry hopes to make the kind of cultural impact that Louis did.
About 20 years later, Gordy has grown up but has not found his way. Then he starts writing songs for Jackie Wilson (Michael Arnold), meets Smokey Robinson (an appropriately high-pitched Charl Brown) and eventually forms Motown. From there, the hits keep coming for Mary Wells (N’Kenge), The Marvelettes, Martha and the Vandellas.
The show features close to 60 songs, but few are performed in their entirety. That’s one of the problems: Songs start, stop; another one starts. You hear a lot of tunes, but there are times you want more.
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Source: Daily Record / MJ-Upbeat.com
MJ is the king. Whenever i listen his tracks i feel as he is still alive. Certainly one of the most significant pop music stars ever been born!