MOTOWN THE MUSICAL ensemble performing JACKSON 5 number at Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, BROADWAY on May 23, 2014.

MOTOWN THE MUSICAL ensemble performing JACKSON 5 number at Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, BROADWAY on May 23, 2014.

By Danny R. Johnson

BROADWAY – The late Bob Fosse, who was one of the world’s greatest Broadway producers and choreographers of hit musicals, once stated that the trickiest thing about a musical was to figure out a way for the characters to break gracefully into song. Maybe that was all wrong. Perhaps the hardest thing was for them to find a way to keep the bravura going for a 2 ½ hours show. That’s why I have to give Motown The Musical, currently playing on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, a rousing two-thumbs up for taking us through a magical tour of three decades of Motown hits performed with virtuoso precision and electrifying performances!

The Friday, May 23, 2014 show was remarkable as it was nostalgic because it provided the sold-out and standing room only patrons the opportunity to see actors play and perform the hits of legendary Motown icons such as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Contours, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Tammi Terrell, Rick James, Teena Marie, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie and the Commondores, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, and the man who started it all, Berry Gordy.

These performers have been delving it out and shaking it up to the delight of thousands who have attended the show since Motown The Musical first opened on Broadway in April 2013. The indelible styles of the Motown artists previously listed are being effectively recreated by a blazing cast of gifted singers impersonating this crowded pantheon of soul, funk and pop-chart giants.

Our tour guide on this busy joy ride through the Motor City of the late 1960s and ’70s, and the show’s principal character, is Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records. Gordy wrote the book for the musical (adapted from his 1994 autobiography, To Be Loved: The Music, The Magic, The Memories of Motown By Berry Gordy), and his recollections of the era and the artists he discovered and nurtured as the preeminent guardian over a once lucrative musical empire serves as the inspiration for Motown The Musical.

MOTOWN THE MUSICAL performers portraying The Supremes and Berry Gordy.

MOTOWN THE MUSICAL performers portraying The Supremes and Berry Gordy.

The various segments of the show are introduced and skillfully guided by director Charles Randolph Wright, superb choreography by Patricia Wilcox and Warren Adams, and riveting musical scores by musical director Ethan Popp and Bryan Crook. In observing each of the acts you get a sense of the rare feeling of nostalgia for Motown, which in its heyday, was not only a record company, but also a benevolent and provocative organization ruled by the paternal Berry Gordy. The show avoids the trap of being too worshipful of Gordy in face of all the greatness of the Motown artists. But it’s not afraid to address the serious personality clashes Gordy ran up against.

In one scene we have Gordy (played wonderfully by actor Brandon Victor Dixon) having an argument with Marvin Gaye (played by Bryan Terrell Clark) with Marvin trying to explain his frustrations with Gordy’s oversensitivity in protecting his [Gordy] financial interests over the well-being of the artists who made him rich; and we see musical numbers of Marvin singing What’s Going On during the height of the Black Freedom Struggle. And then there are the glorious, unforgettable numbers from the musical with The Marvelettes’ performing Please Mr. Postman, The Jackson 5 cutting it up with ABC and I Want You Back, The Supremes singing Baby Love, Reach Out I’ll Be There, The Temptations’ My Girl and Cloud Nine were show stoppers for sure!

Close to 60 songs are performed in Motown The Musical in concert versions by the actors playing the artists who made them famous, but a few realized that Gordy employed dozens of songwriters.

The Motown production process has been described as factory-like. The Hitsville studios remained open and active 22 hours a day, and artists would often go on tour for weeks, come back to Detroit to record as many songs as possible, and then promptly go on tour again. Berry Gordy held quality control meetings every Friday morning, and used veto power to ensure that only the very best material and performances would be released. The test was that every new release needed to fit into a sequence of the top five selling pop singles of the week. Several tracks that later became critical and commercial favorites were initially rejected by Gordy; the two most notable being the Marvin Gaye songs “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “What’s Going On”.

MOTOWN THE MUSICAL ensemble performing a Temptations number at Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, BROADWAY on May 23, 2014.

MOTOWN THE MUSICAL ensemble performing a Temptations number at Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, BROADWAY on May 23, 2014.

In several cases, producers would re-work tracks in hopes of eventually getting them approved at a later Friday morning meeting, as producer Norman Whitfield did with “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and The Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg”. Many of Motown’s best-known songs, including all the early hits for The Supremes, were written by the songwriting trio of HollandDozierHolland (Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland). Other important Motown producers and songwriters included Norman Whitfield, William “Mickey” Stevenson, Smokey Robinson, Barrett Strong, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, Frank Wilson, Pamela Sawyer & Gloria Jones, James Dean & William Weatherspoon, Johnny Bristol, Harvey Fuqua, Gil Askey, Stevie Wonder and Gordy himself.

Motown The Musical is fun from beginning to end. It’s not dull, and it’s not overly packaged. It’s a celebration of a time and place in American music history when one man and a group of talented artists, musicians, and songwriters came together to make a new art form which has significance to this very day.

Motown The Musical

Book by Berry Gordy, based on his autobiography, “To Be Loved: the Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown”; music and lyrics from the Motown catalog; directed by Charles Randolph-Wright; choreographed by Patricia Wilcox and Warren Adams; music supervision and arrangements by Ethan Popp; sets by David Korins; costumes by Esosa; lighting by Natasha Katz; sound by Peter Hylenski; projections by Daniel Brodie; hair and wig design by Charles G. LaPointe; associate director, Schele Williams; assistant choreographer, Brian H. Brooks; production stage manager, Julia P. Jones; technical supervisor, David Benken; general manager, Bespoke Theatricals; executive producer, Nina Lannan; music coordinator, Michael Keller; orchestrations by Mr. Popp and Bryan Crook; music director/conductor, Joseph Joubert; dance music arrangements by Zane Mark; additional arrangements by Mr. Crook; script consultants, David Goldsmith and Dick Scanlan; creative consultant, Christie Burton. Presented by Kevin McCollum, Doug Morris and Berry Gordy. At the Lunt-Fontanne Theater, 205 West 46th Street, Manhattan, (877) 250-2929, ticketmaster.com. Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes.

WITH: Brandon Victor Dixon (Berry Gordy), Valisia LeKae (Diana Ross), Charl Brown (Smokey Robinson), Bryan Terrell Clark (Marvin Gaye), Eric LaJuan Summers (Jackie Wilson and others) and Raymond Luke Jr. and Jibreel Mawry (young Berry/Stevie Wonder/Michael Jackson).

Danny R. Johnson is San Diego County News’ Jazz and Pop Music Critic.

[contextly_auto_sidebar id=”ndzGMREjHvoiG38R1CCX6GLVlSHj6Zml”]