The National Tour of "Motown the Musical"
There are so many jukebox musicals that exist in the musical theatre canon. There's Jersey Boys, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan, and so many more. These are just a few biographical musicals that use the music of that artist and other music from their genre to tell their story and do a phenomenal job doing it...and then there's Motown.
Although the music and the talent in the show is undeniably great, it's not enough to save the craziness of a show that is Motown the Musical. Motown is about the legendary music producer, Berry Gordy, and the rise of Motown as a recording company and a studio. Major parts of the story include Gordy's relationship with Diana Ross and some of his other employees, including Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye. The show is also written by Gordy, so that makes this an autobiographical musical. Based on how some of the characters are portrayed, it honestly feels like Berry Gordy wrote this show to get back at some of these artists for leaving his record label.
The show was STUFFED with songs. There wasn't even a reason for half of them to be happening other than that the people in the audience knew them. There were at least seven fake concerts that happened during the show. They'd introduce a new artist or plot point, then they'd sing five songs in a row. They didn't move the plot forward or do anything, they would just stop everything and sing multiple songs in a row as a part of a fake concert. The entire show was basically just a three hour laundry list of Motown songs that people know. There wasn't a reason for anyone to be singing any of the songs other than the fact that the people in the audience know them. This brings me to my next point that the cast sang very well and I made sure to take great notice of their incredible vocals. So, even though they really didn't have a reason to be singing within the context of the show, you could still say that the music was very good, as it should be.
Berry Gordy's script was extremely choppy and unfocused. There were quite a few scenes that didn't serve a purpose, in addition to all of the fake concerts. One of the show's biggest problems is that it doesn't know what type of show it wants to be. It appears to be simply a show about the history of Motown, but they also toss in historical moments about the civil rights movement, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the Vietnam war. Gordy did not know how to tell both ends of the story and did not do a good job interpreting these aspects of the show, making all of these moments about all of these important things that happened in history feeling pointless. I think that the only reason these events were elements of the show was simply because they happened to take place in the time period of this story.
The cast was quite talented, but the script didn't give them anything to work with. For example, Trenyce was an amazing Diana Ross, but Gordy wrote her as some dumb girl with no substance and it felt as if she was in the show for no other reason than to give Berry Gordy a love interest. I was offended at how Gordy made Diana Ross out to be. Gordy also wrote the role of Smokey Robinson (played by Justin Reynolds) to be a total goofball and I think he was meant to be the show's comedic relief...it didn't work. Not only are these characters poorly portrayed by Gordy, but it really just shows you what Berry Gordy (played by a promising Kenneth Mosley) thinks about them.
This was one of those shows where I was highly disappointed with the scenic design (by David Korins), the little that there was. The set was just about three or four LED screens (the projections were by Daniel Brody) and it looked really cheap. However, Emilio Sosa's costume designs and Charles G. LaPointe's wigs provided the show with some really good eye candy. The stage work was fine, but nothing blew me away about Charles Randolph-Wright's direction.
Although just about everyone else in the audience was loving the show, I cannot say I did. I think the reason that everyone else in the audience enjoyed it was because of the nostalgia the show evoked, which is all that most jukebox musicals set out to do. Because of that, the show succeeded on that end. However, I was not amused throughout most of the show.
MOTOWN THE MUSICAL
Book by Berry Gordy
Music by Various Artists
For more information on the national tour of MOTOWN THE MUSICAL, please visit http://www.motownthemusical.com/
The national tour of MOTOWN THE MUSICAL is directed by Charles Randolph-Wright and the consists of:
Berry Gordy- KENNETH MOSLEY
Diana Ross- TRENYCE
Smokey Robinson- JUSTIN REYNOLDS
Marvin Gaye-MATT MANUEL
Young Berry Gordy/Stevie Wonder/Michael Jackson- KAI CALHOUN/CHASE PHILLIPS
Although the music and the talent in the show is undeniably great, it's not enough to save the craziness of a show that is Motown the Musical. Motown is about the legendary music producer, Berry Gordy, and the rise of Motown as a recording company and a studio. Major parts of the story include Gordy's relationship with Diana Ross and some of his other employees, including Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye. The show is also written by Gordy, so that makes this an autobiographical musical. Based on how some of the characters are portrayed, it honestly feels like Berry Gordy wrote this show to get back at some of these artists for leaving his record label.
The show was STUFFED with songs. There wasn't even a reason for half of them to be happening other than that the people in the audience knew them. There were at least seven fake concerts that happened during the show. They'd introduce a new artist or plot point, then they'd sing five songs in a row. They didn't move the plot forward or do anything, they would just stop everything and sing multiple songs in a row as a part of a fake concert. The entire show was basically just a three hour laundry list of Motown songs that people know. There wasn't a reason for anyone to be singing any of the songs other than the fact that the people in the audience know them. This brings me to my next point that the cast sang very well and I made sure to take great notice of their incredible vocals. So, even though they really didn't have a reason to be singing within the context of the show, you could still say that the music was very good, as it should be.
Berry Gordy's script was extremely choppy and unfocused. There were quite a few scenes that didn't serve a purpose, in addition to all of the fake concerts. One of the show's biggest problems is that it doesn't know what type of show it wants to be. It appears to be simply a show about the history of Motown, but they also toss in historical moments about the civil rights movement, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the Vietnam war. Gordy did not know how to tell both ends of the story and did not do a good job interpreting these aspects of the show, making all of these moments about all of these important things that happened in history feeling pointless. I think that the only reason these events were elements of the show was simply because they happened to take place in the time period of this story.
The cast was quite talented, but the script didn't give them anything to work with. For example, Trenyce was an amazing Diana Ross, but Gordy wrote her as some dumb girl with no substance and it felt as if she was in the show for no other reason than to give Berry Gordy a love interest. I was offended at how Gordy made Diana Ross out to be. Gordy also wrote the role of Smokey Robinson (played by Justin Reynolds) to be a total goofball and I think he was meant to be the show's comedic relief...it didn't work. Not only are these characters poorly portrayed by Gordy, but it really just shows you what Berry Gordy (played by a promising Kenneth Mosley) thinks about them.
This was one of those shows where I was highly disappointed with the scenic design (by David Korins), the little that there was. The set was just about three or four LED screens (the projections were by Daniel Brody) and it looked really cheap. However, Emilio Sosa's costume designs and Charles G. LaPointe's wigs provided the show with some really good eye candy. The stage work was fine, but nothing blew me away about Charles Randolph-Wright's direction.
Although just about everyone else in the audience was loving the show, I cannot say I did. I think the reason that everyone else in the audience enjoyed it was because of the nostalgia the show evoked, which is all that most jukebox musicals set out to do. Because of that, the show succeeded on that end. However, I was not amused throughout most of the show.
 |
Book by Berry Gordy
Music by Various Artists
For more information on the national tour of MOTOWN THE MUSICAL, please visit http://www.motownthemusical.com/
The national tour of MOTOWN THE MUSICAL is directed by Charles Randolph-Wright and the consists of:
Berry Gordy- KENNETH MOSLEY
Diana Ross- TRENYCE
Smokey Robinson- JUSTIN REYNOLDS
Marvin Gaye-MATT MANUEL
Young Berry Gordy/Stevie Wonder/Michael Jackson- KAI CALHOUN/CHASE PHILLIPS
Comments
Post a Comment