Motown: The Musical
Tickets from $66 Buy Tickets
Cititour.com Review
You don't get to the top of the charts by being the shy, retiring type. And just like Motown founder Berry Gordy, the jukebox biomusical Motown: The Musical is a force to be reckoned with. That’s a good thing when the show is rolling out the chart-topping hits from the '60s and '70s that cemented the record label's reputation as a springboard for African-American artists. But when the music stops, director Charles Randolph-Wright's production nearly comes to a grinding halt as it attempts to tell the story of Gordy's epic rise and subsequent fall.
The framing device is Motown's 25th-anniversary TV concert in 1983. As acts like the Four Tops and the Temptations take the stage, Gordy (Brandon Victor Dixon) sulks over the sagging fortunes of his once-proud company, before the show takes us back in time to 1950s Detroit, where the former boxer breaks into the music industry by writing a song for Jackie Wilson. As Motown introduced singers such as Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and of course, Diana Ross and the Supremes to the masses, Gordy developed a tyrannical reputation, especially where his tempestuous relationship with Ross was concerned.
That relationship was the inspiration for the Tony-winning musical Dreamgirls, but the book of Motown has been adapted by Gordy from his own autobiography in such a dull, formulaic way that it neuters much potential for conflict. Gordy is presented as a static character, with little in the way of flaws, and thus minimal potential for growth, quite a contrast to the way members of the Four Seasons are depicted in the all-around brilliant Jersey Boys.
But as long as songs like "Baby I Need Your Loving," "Do You Love Me" and "Where Did Our Love Go" keep rolling out, Motown remains an invigorating force. Valisia LeKae's Diana Ross brings down the house with "Stop in the Name of Love" and gets audience members in on the act in "Reach Out and Touch." Also impressive is Raymond Luke Jr., one of two young actors to split the role of Michael Jackson, who sings "ABC" and "I'll Be There" with his Jackson 5 brethren. Charl Brown creates the most full-bodied character as Smokey Robinson, a longtime Gordy ally and the author of hits such as "My Guy" and "My Girl."
At nearly three hours, Motown's ambitions are as grand as those of the record label's founder. Not surprisingly, the show is filled with as many triumphs and disappointments as Gordy's own career.
By DIANE SNYDER
Visit the Site
http://www.motownthemusical.com
Cast
Brandon Victor Dixon, Valisia LeKae, Charl Brown, Timothy J. Alex, Nicholas Christopher, Bryan Terrell Clark, Rebecca E. Covington, Ariana DeBose, Andrea Dora, Preston W. Dugger III, Wilkie Ferguson, Dionne Figgins, Marva Hicks, Sasha Hutchings, Lauren Lim Jackson, Morgan James, John Jellison, Crystal Joy, Grasan Kingsberry, Marielys Molina, Sydney Morton, Jarran Muse, Jesse Nager, Milton Craig Nealy, N’Kenge, Dominic Nolfi, Saycon Sengbloh, Ryan Shaw, Jamal Story, Eric Lajuan Summers, Ephraim Sykes, Julius Thomas III, Daniel J. Watts, Donald Webber Jr.
Open/Close Dates
Opening 4/14/2013
Closing 1/18/2015
Preview Open/ Preview Close Dates
Preview Opening 3/11/2013
Closing Open-ended
Box Office
877-250-2929
Theatre Info
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
205 West 46th Street
New York, NY 10036
Map
Comments
Sign up for our newsletter !
