Robert Tanitch reviews Motown The Musical at Shaftesbury Theatre, London WC2
Jukebox musicals are very popular with nostalgic audiences and this American musical is going to make a lot of people very happy.
The show is based on the biography of Berry Gordy, the founder of Detroit’s Motown Records and takes a look at his life as producer and songwriter. Gordy is 86 and still with us.
Lucy St. Louis
The performances of the artists on his label are recreated; and these include acts by Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and the Temptations.
The music they created crossed racial and political divides. We are back in the era of the Civil Rights Movement, the assassination of JFK and Martin Luther King and Vietnam.
The major weakness of the show is the book. I doubt if this will bother audiences though they may be surprised to find Berry Jordy and Diana Ross in bed together, and even more surprised that it should be such an anti-climax.
Audiences will be coming just for the music and the catalogue includes such favourites as My Guy, Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand, Can I Close the Door on Love, Aint No Mountain High Enough and Dancing in the Streets.
There are some 50 songs altogether and many of them, sadly, have had to be truncated.
Charles Randolph-Wright’s production is slick and lively. The costumes, the wigs and the movement for the lead singers always look right.
There are strong and likeable performances from Cedric Neal as Berry Gordy, Lucy St Louis as Diana Ross and Charl Brown as Smokey Robinson.
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