Review Roundup: THE TEMPTATIONS and THE FOUR TOPS Come to Broadway

Motown legends, THE TEMPTATIONS and THE FOUR TOPS, began their special one-week engagement on Broadway last night, December 29, 2014. The show runs through January 4, 2015.

Both a career retrospective as well as a celebration of the hit songs that defined a generation, this special one-week Broadway engagement of THE TEMPTATIONS and THE FOUR TOPS features the legendary Hall of Fame artists performing all their classic Top 10 Billboard hits, including "My Girl," "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," "Reach Out I'll Be There," "Bernadette," "Get Ready," "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I Got)," "Baby I Need Your Lovin'," "It's the Same Old Song (But With a Different Meaning Since You've Been Gone)," "The Way You Do the Things You Do," and "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)," in a once-in-a-lifetime Broadway event.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Jon Pareles, The New York Times: As straightforward as its name, the show is a natty presentation of the two vocal groups that were, back in the 1960s, rivals at Motown Records, striving to make the gutsiest hits and the most slickly choreographed stage acts...The introduction to the show puts both groups onstage in a mock battle that has them singing bits of songs back and forth; then each one plays what's probably its typical club set. The rivals are no longer equals. In their current lineup, the Temptations are far and away the better preserved...Mr. Williamson, the group's newest member, is a find: a large man who's light on his feet and, even more important, full-throated with gospel timing. He had multiple paths from croon to rasp, and he could sound simultaneously forceful and desperate in a song like "(I Know) I'm Losing You."...The Four Tops traded more on nostalgia and sentimentality...they could still summon harmony, as they proved when they sustained the final chord of "Walk Away Renee" in a proud a cappella. But Levi Stubbs, their original lead singer, was irreplaceable; Harold Bonhart, in his place, has a lighter tone, without Mr. Stubbs's baritone punch.

Christopher Murray, New York Observer: ...both The Temps and The Tops are clearly survivors, each having been around for more than fifty years in one configuration or another. What was unexpected was the roaring performance delivered by The Temptations, especially from their lead vocalist, the take-no-prisoners soul stirrer, Brian Williamson. First though came The Four Tops, with Abdul Fakir, known as "Duke"...Seeing the reconfigured Tops, even in their electric blue slacks and flashy jackets to match, felt like watching a PBS pledge drive live on stage, with no sense that new material had been added, patter changed or choreography brushed up in a long time. It was enjoyably benign, the affable Duke leading the way in folksy tributes to the fallen members and the desultory whipping up of the audience of aging fans to its feet...The Temps were not only still alive, but with smart choices about new talent, their hearts were pumping...The Temps blend still sounded great, which is pretty impressive given that, unlike most boy bands we've had to endure for the last quarter century, aren't all tenors singing thirds apart from each other. The Temps harmonies run a crazy gamut from Joe Herndon's full-throated froggy bass all the way up to the still clear as a bell falsetto of Ronald Tyson. Terry Weeks kept the group's moves sharp...That the Four Tops and their Duke are still making R & B and soul music is impressive, that The Temptations transcend their own history to bring down the house is extraordinary.

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Photo by Andrew Benge.

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