MOTOWN THE MUSICAL to Hit the West End's Shaftesbury Theatre Next Spring

After hinting at a summer run in London, it looks like MOTOWN THE MUSICAL will be shakin' it in the West End next spring.

The Daily Mail reports the musical is set to open at the Shaftesbury Theatre (where MEMPHIS is currently playing) in March 2016. Director Charles Randolph-Wright will be conducting auditions in May.

MOTOWN THE MUSICAL is the real story of the one-of-a-kind sound that hit the airwaves in 1959 and changed our culture forever. This exhilarating show charts Motown Founder Berry Gordy's incredible journey from featherweight boxer to the heavyweight music mogul who launched the careers of Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and many more. MOTOWN tells the story behind the hits as the whole Motown family fights against the odds to create the soundtrack of change in America; Motown shattered barriers, shaped our lives and made us all move to the same beat.

The Mail writes that Gordy "might make himself less of a god in the London iteration. But don't bet on it."

MOTOWN, the hit musical featuring the music of the legendary Motown catalogue and a book by Berry Gordy, closed on Broadway in January at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre and is set to return to Broadway at a Nederlander in July 2016. In the meantime, the musical continues its national tour across the U.S.

Pictured: The original Broadway cast of MOTOWN. Photo by Joan Marcus.