On cloud 9
Stage is set for Temptations biomusical
LET’S take a break from the Tonys — my predictions will be in Sunday’s Post, if you can stand the wait — and see what else is happening around Broadway these days. The astonishing success of “Jersey Boys” (worldwide gross: $2 billion and counting) has triggered a run on biomusicals about pop groups and singers. There have been hits (“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical”), flops (“Baby It’s You!”) and near-misses (“Motown: The Musical”). In the pipeline are musicals about Cher, Donna Summer and Herman’s Hermits.
But one that’s starting to get a lot of attention is “Ain’t Too Proud — The Temptations.” A staged reading was held in New York last week, and when I put my ear to the grapevine, I heard someone say, “It’s everything ‘Motown’ should have been.”
Des McAnuff is directing (he did “Jersey Boys”) and Sergio Trujillo (another “Jersey Boys” vet) is choreographing. The writer is an interesting choice: Dominique Morisseau, who’s best known for her three-play cycle called “The Detroit Project.”
Overseeing the show are Ira Pittelman and Tom Hulce, who produced the Tony Award-winning musical “Spring Awakening.”
“Ain’t Too Proud” begins in Birmingham, Ala., where two of the first Temptations — Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams — met in a church choir. They eventually moved to Detroit and, after a few minor hits, combined with another group to form the Temptations. When David Ruffin joined the mix, the “Classic Five” Era began —“My Girl,” “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “My Baby,” “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg.”
Of course, with success came egotism, conflict and betrayal — all the stuff you need for a juicy biomusical. The main character in “Ain’t Too Proud” is Ruffin, whose “mellow yet gruff” voice, as Smokey Robinson called it, became the group’s signature sound. The group also became famous for ththeiri smooth dance moves behind the microphones.
Ruffin eventually went off the rails — snorting coke, demanding star treatment, missing rehearsals and annoying the hell out of his boss, Motown chief Berry Gordy.
Gordy fired him in 1968, triggering lawsuits and some bizarre moments, such as when Ruffin would show up at a Temptations gig, walk onstage, seize the microphone and start singing the songs he helped make famous.
It’s all in the musical, which is set against the civil-rights era and the war in Vietnam. The script is “still a little sketchy,” says a source, “but packed with drama.” The song list includes all the big hits, plus several of what my source describes as “excellent B-side recordings.”
McAnuff’s presentation was slick, and the cast was made up of extremely talented new faces on the Broadway scene. I’m told a number of investors were pulling out their checkbooks when it was over.
“Ain’t Too Proud” is scheduled to open in August at the Berkeley Rep in California. Depending on its reception, it could hit Broadway in the spring of 2018.
CONGRATULATIONS to Haley Swindal, who brought down the house the other night at 54 Below.
Swindal, George Steinbrenner’s granddaughter, appeared on Broadway in “Jekyll & Hyde” and starred in the “Duck Dynasty” musical out in Vegas. She recently had a baby, but decided it was time to jump back onstage with a cabaret act.
Her rendition of the Shirley Bassey standard “This Is My Life,” one of my favorite songs, was outstanding.
Word is that the Café Carlyle is a-callin’!