If “Motown the Musical” was just “Motown the Play,” it would come off more like a two and a half hour Power Point presentation … with a 15-minute intermission.
But the show is a musical, one that boasts one of the most recognizable song catalogs in the known world. Thank goodness, because that is the sole reason why the production at Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center for the Performing Arts through March 8 is even worth checking out.
Those hits tip the scales ever so slightly toward the jukebox musical about the rise of soul legends Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Mary Wells and super groups like Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, the Four Tops, The Jackson 5 and Temptations.
They are all there, played by a clone-like cast (with cameos from Gladys Knight and the Pips, Rick James, the Commodores, Teena Marie), and that is part of the problem. They. Are. ALL. There.
There is a big whoosh of singers zipping by onstage in zappy wigs and zingy costumes, but the script by Motown founder Berry Gordy – the central figure of the show – is stiff and stilted. The book is also bogged down with far too many details and characters. If only there was one central theme (pick one: Motown’s crossover success; African-American aspirations; the romance between Gordy and Ross; backstage grit versus onstage glitz; boardroom bickering). The show has them all. You couldn’t get “mo” into “Motown the Musical” if you used a shoehorn.
Instead we get them all and we get them in big pronouncements with lots of wide-spread arms, not unlike a school assembly program. And the choreography could be tighter.
Ahhh, but that Motown sound, it is glorious. And you certainly get to hear your money’s worth since the score includes 60 songs, even though some are reduced to just snippets. Though with chart toppers like “Dancing in the Street,” “Stop in the Name of Love,” “What’s Going On,” “Super Freak” and “My Girl” even a few bars are a visceral joy.
“Motown the Musical” will run through March 8 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., in Fort Lauderdale. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays (6:30 p.m. Sunday, March 1), with matinees 2 p.m. Saturdays (also Wednesday, March 4) and 1 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $34.75 to $153.11. To order, call 800-745-3000 or go to BrowardCenter.org.
