TEMPTING TALE
Buzz grows for a new Motown musical
Alittle tip if you want to see a show before it takes off and prices go sky-high: It ain’t too soon to grab tickets to “Ain’t Too Proud.”
This new musical, about the Temptations, has been making its way to Broadway over the past year without a lot of fanfare. Let’s face it: We’ve overdosed on bio-musicals about baby-boomer singers and singing groups.
“Jersey Boys,” great. “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” lots of fun. But the format was getting a little tired.
Bruce Springsteen upped the ante by appearing in his own bio-show, but that’s a oneoff: We’re not going to see Bob Dylan headlining “Girl From the North Country” when that play with music moves to Broadway, nor will Cher or Tina Turner jump onstage in their upcoming shows.
But “Ain’t Too Proud” opened in Toronto this week, and the next morning, I had 10 e-mails from friends saying the show is sensational.
The musical begins previews on Broadway in February at the Imperial Theatre where, as one source says, “the rafters will be shaking.”
Director Des McAnuff and choreographer Sergio Trujillo, the team behind “Jersey Boys,” are at the helm here. The script is by Dominique Morisseau, who just picked up a $625,000 MacArthur “genius” award, which isn’t a bad credit to list in your Playbill bio.
McAnuff and Trujillo have done their customary slick work, but it’s Morisseau’s script that, my spies say, elevates the show to something more than a VH1 “Behind the Music” episode put onstage.
She tells the tale from Otis Williams’ point of view. He helped create the Temptations, and he’s the only one who’s still performing. The story is typical showbiz: The group struggles at first, but then takes off with the hit single “Cloud Nine.”
The hits rack up, fame comes, money rolls in. But so do drugs, booze, women and feuds. Tensions rise, the group frays, and it all comes crashing down.
But Morisseau, who, like the Temptations, is from Detroit, catches the mood of the times and makes Williams a complex narrator whose motives aren’t always noble.
Derrick Baskin plays Williams in a career-making turn some are comparing to that of Leslie Odom Jr., the original Aaron Burr in “Hamilton.”
Music legends depicted in the show have seen it, and have given it their seal of approval. I’m told Motown founder Berry Gordy has been to several performances and is on board to do a lot of publicity for it. Williams has been at rehearsals and performances and is reportedly OK with scenes that don’t show the group in the best light. Smokey Robinson and Mary Wilson are also fans of “Ain’t Too Proud.”
Broadway insiders are comparing it to “Dreamgirls” in its depiction of the brutalities of show business — and its breathless pace.
“Des is very much in Michael Bennett mode,” says a source, referring to the legendary director of “Dreamgirls” and “A Chorus Line.”
Anna Wintour dispatched spies to see the show, and I hear that Vogue is planning a splashy spread.
Out-of-town reviews have been strong, although there are quibbles that the script, as good as it is, sometimes gets a little existential and pretentious.
But what do you expect from someone who won a MacArthur “genius grant”? It goes to poets, novelists and composers no one’s ever heard of. It doesn’t go to Neil Simon.
A production source says not to worry: The existential stuff is being trimmed, and a little more showbiz savvy is being injected into the show.
I doubt Morisseau will object. While $625,000 is nice, the people who wrote “Jersey Boys” and “Beautiful” have made a lot more than that.