THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
With hits like 'Get Ready', 'Just My Imagination', 'Shout!', 'Papa Was a Rollin' Stone' and the timeless 'My Girl' The Temptations were central to the Motown explosion which changed pop music for ever in the 1960s. As well as having the keenest ear for a hit, label boss Berry Gordy's innovation was putting the group above any individual's ambition and the success of this music was so phenomenal internationally that a version of the band is still touring to this day. The opening night of his production was graced by the presence of the founder and leader of the original group, Otis Williams, and their renowned manager Shelly Berger, both still incredibly spritely.
This joyful celebration of that great musical legacy arrives at the luxurious Prince Edward already being a gold plated Broadway hit and while the creative team are from the New York production, director Des McAnuff has assembled an astonishing array of young and new British talent who burn the floor with their sharp moves and infectious energy.
Dominique Morisseau's book however is the weak aspect. It clunkily tries to pack it all in into a plodding chronology and her prosaic dialogue is flat as a pancake. Unlike the show Motown, which told a similar story but with more flair, or Jersey Boys, whose book at least had an emotional punch, this is schematic and frantic. 28 songs are shoehorned in, nearly all truncated, and so they lose their individual potential impact. This is a jukebox stuck on the 'Skip' button.
The familiar tropes of the rock-pop jukebox show are all present here: the effortful rise, the grasping early managers, the burning desire to escape poverty or petty crime, the jealousies, squabbles and punch ups among the band members, the pained exits, for Black performers the hell of touring during the Civil Rights era, the awful toll on family life, the loneliness of the road, the inevitable descent into the balm of alcohol and drugs addiction, and the comeback redemption. This may be the story but it's the job of the book writer to make sense of it and this one fails. Here the founder of the group Otis (Sifiso Mazibuko) who is both the narrator and the central protagonist, comes across as a prig, unintentionally I would guess. The bonds between the men are not enough to not throw those who start to fail under the bus. David Ruffin, their most flamboyant lead, after sad attempts to return to the band, ended up dying alone in a crack den. The piece never dares to explore the 'why' of this human toll, as it is too busy getting on with the next number. Admittedly this is a failing of the genre not the piece itself, but it leaves it rather soulless. The design elements, basically a giant marquee with projections, might aid the pace but are sparse and uninspiring.
But everyone is here for the music and that, under MD Matt Smith, is just great. In an incredibly talented ensemble, it is unfair to single anyone out, but, Tosh Wanogho-Maud as Ruffin has the perfect moves and the most incredible vocal chops to match. Those moves of course were central to the band's success, particularly on TV, and choreographer Sergio Trujillo (who won a Tony for this) has recreated them with the attention of an art restorer while also supplying the fluidity needed to keep this spinning top in constant motion.
