The theater season is coming to a rapid conclusion. My friend the Tony nominator (who is seeing something like ten shows in seven days) invited me to join him at yesterday's matinee of Motown. Since my boss was also going, I figured sure, why not? I like Motown music. How bad can it be?
Wow. Well, it wasn't good. I always feel badly about saying such things, because I know how much hard work goes into putting on a musical, but...it's the truth. Or, my truth, at least. We did stay for the second act - out of respect for the Tony nominator seats and also because I wanted to see the Jackson Five. Silly reason, I know, but my brain has no rhyme or reason.
It's the libretto that's a complete and utter failure. Berry Gordy wrote the book and it's pretty much a love letter to himself. There is no cliche left unsaid - nearly every piece of dialogue makes you cringe and/or roll your eyes. Which is too bad, because the cast is talented and committed, the physical production is good and the choreography is pretty exciting. It's just whenever they stop singing those glorious Motown songs (and sadly, many of the songs are truncated - they've shoehorned over 50 songs into this show!), the dialogue is so awful, you just want it to stop.
It was just so odd. There was no shape to the book - of course, it's told in flashback and it's a 'then I did this' and 'then I did that' sort of thing, but it has no arc. No emotional highs or lows. And characters come and go with no specificity. Sometimes, it was hard to tell who was who, because it was time to move on to something else. I think the story tried to tell too much - you couldn't get the whole history of Motown into one musical AND include so many songs. It's just not possible. They should've chosen either to dramatize the story of Motown (and have somebody else write the book, clearly) or just do a concert version of all the wonderful songs. This is just an awkward, unsuccessful merging of the two. Oh, and it was completely tasteless to include a throwaway reference to Marvin Gaye's father. Especially when Berry Gordy completely eliminated nearly all mention of his wives or children (though he did include a laughable scene about his impotence). OH, and the audience participation section? Yuck. OK. Moving on.
Seeing a musical with actors playing so many famous singers is tricky - you have the iconic real-life performances in your brain, you can't help it. And to see talented actors try to take on the iconic performances can be off-putting. I started to feel as if they shouldn't have tried to dramatize Diana Ross. The real Diana Ross has such an unquantifiable 'it' quality, that it almost seems unfair to criticize the actress playing her for not having it. Not many people do! And who knew that Smokey Robinson was a dimwitted lacky for Berry Gordy? Did Smokey Robinson sign off on that? It's almost like he's playing Lennie in Of Mice and Men to Berry Gordy's George. The actor had some charm, but oh, that dialogue. Then there's the poor actor playing Berry Gordy, he's just hamstrung by the horrific dialogue. His songs are mainly new ones (also written by Berry Gordy) and they're really lackluster. I just felt so sorry for him. I know he's a wonderful performer, I've seen him in other shows. This show did NOT show him off to any advantage at all.
The boy playing Michael Jackson, however, he has IT. Not the same kind of otherworldly magic that the young Michael Jackson had, but still. We're going to hear more from this kid, I know it. When he came out in that fringed purple vest and purple hat, and grooved to "ABC," "I Want You Back" and "I'll Be There," there was a buzz in the audience about seeing a new star.
Of course, there was a buzz in the audience through most of the show. They ate it up. Seriously ATE IT UP. They were singing along and clapping and whooping and hollering. So, apparently there's an audience for this show. It just wasn't me. Though, I will admit, when the concert sections happened, and we got the Four Tops, the Temptations, the Contours, Stevie Wonder, Martha and the Vandellas, and the Miracles, all singing their signature hits, I was almost sold. If only they had just kept singing...
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