Review: MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL Is a Treat For The Eyes and Ears

MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL is a jukebox musical that premiered on Broadway in April 2013, receiving four Tony Award nominations. Based on Berry Gordy's 1994 autobiography To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown, it tells the story of how he founded and ran the Motown record label. It also touches on his relationships with Diana Ross (Allison Semmes), Marvin Gaye (Jarran Muse), and Smokey Robinson (Jesse Nager). Digging deep into the Motown catalog, the show contains over 60 songs. With that many songs one would expect a pretty thin book; however, by wisely placing most of the focus on Gordy (Chester Gregory) and Ross' relationship and the rise and fall of Motown, we are given a compelling portrait of both Gordy and the music industry. MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL is a celebration of the Motown sound... that sound that joined black and white America in ways nothing else has equaled before or since...that magical period in our past when we were invited to go dancing in the street to a brand new beat.

The story is framed as a flash back during the 25th anniversary celebration of Motown Records at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium back in 1983. All the Motown recording stars have gathered to pay tribute to Gordy, but an angry Gordy is refusing to attend the celebration. We flashback to 1938 in Detroit, Michigan where a young Berry Gordy is watching a boxing match and then proceed to fly through the next 45 years watching Berry form his own record label and discover artists like Diana Ross and the Supremes and The Jackson 5, among many others.

The music is mostly from the Motown catalog except for three new songs written by Gordy and Michael Lovesmith for the Berry Gordy character that function as pivotal dramatic moments that advance the story when there wasn't a Motown classic that fit. The best of these are "It's What's In The Grooves That Counts" which is sung to convince a white radio station to play what was, at the time, considered "race music" and the big ballad "Can I Close the Door" which is powerfully delivered by Chester Gregory as Gordy.

What MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL manages to do is to tell one of the great American Dream success stories set against a backdrop of social change. The success of this is due in no small part to David Korins' scenic design and Daniel Brodie's projection design. Korins set constantly morphs and changes to convey well over 25 different locales. Brodie's projections on that set brilliantly integrate headlines, graphics, animation and imagery to convey time, mood and even history. It is some dazzling work that is as important to the story as the book itself. Natasha Katz's lighting compliments these designs perfectly.

The costuming, by Esosa, is a marvel that captures multiple time periods with pin point accuracy... and those Motown performer costumes are knockouts. There are more than 450 costumes, including 14 Swarovski crystal encrusted dresses and 6 pairs of Swarovski crystal encrusted shoes with more 900,000 beads and sequins.

Patricia Wilcox and Warren Adams have choreographed the show faithfully recreating the dances moves that were a signature of the artists at Motown.

Director Charles Randolph-Wright keeps this whirling dervish of a story moving along briskly and maintains the focus where it needs to be to tell the story quite nicely. He has also pulled some terrific performances out of the 33 member cast. While there isn't a bad performance in the show and most certainly an abundance of incredible voices, three performances are especially memorable. Allison Semmes seems to actually be channeling Diana Ross and has even her vocal patterns and gestures down pat. Doug Storm delivers a superb recreation of Ed Sullivan and Rashad Naylor gives an electrifying performance as Rick James.

All the classic Motown songs are here, though mostly in medley format. Full versions are reserved for the most iconic of the songs from the Motown repertoire. Among the songs included: "I Hear a Symphony", "You're All I Need to Get By", "Where Did Our Love Go", "Shop Around", "Please Mr. Postman", "Dancing in the Street", "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "Ball of Confusion", "What's Going On", "Baby Love", "Love is Here and Now You're Gone", "My Girl", "My Guy", and "War"... to name just a few.

Gordy's inspiration for "Hitsville U.S. A." was the time he spent working on the Lincoln-Mercury assembly line in Detroit. He felt he could apply the same assembly line techniques, taking a kid off the street as an unknown, putting them through a process, to create a star. MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL tells the story of how he did just that with passion, style and flair.

MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL - Book by Berry Gordy, Music and Lyrics from the Legendary Motown Catalog.

Running Time: Two Hours and 45 Minutes with one intermission. Please be aware of the new Broadway in Austin policy which does not permit you to leave the building at intermission.

MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL, presented by Lexus Broadway In Austin, at Bass Concert Hall in the Texas Performing Arts Center (2350 Robert Dedman Dr, Austin, TX 78712). Performances run through May 1, 2016.

Showtimes: Tuesday-Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm, Sunday at 1pm and 7pm.

Ticket info 512-471-1444 or www.BroadwayInAustin.com

Photo Credit: Krisha Marcano (Florence Ballard), Allison Semmes (Diana Ross) & Trisha Jeffrey (Mary Wilson). MOTOWN THE MUSICAL First National Tour. © Joan Marcus

To post a comment, you must register and login.