MOTOWN THE MUSICAL Sets Dates at West End's Shaftesbury Theatre

As previously announced, MOTOWN THE MUSICAL will be shakin' it in the West End next spring. And now The Daily Mail has revealed the musical's dates at the Shaftesbury Theatre. Directed by Charles Randolph-Wright, the show is set to begin previews on February 11, with an opening slated for March 8, 2015. Auditions kicked off this month but no one has been cast.

Producer Kevin McCollum noted to the Mail that Motown founder Berry Gordy was "America's first black entertainment mogul" but his music was first accepted in Europe. He added, "The songs Gordy's artists recorded were readily accepted over here, but he had to fight to get them heard in America."

MOTOWN THE MUSICAL is the real story of the one-of-a-kind sound that hit the airwaves in 1959 and changed our culture forever. This exhilarating show charts Motown Founder Berry Gordy's incredible journey from featherweight boxer to the heavyweight music mogul who launched the careers of Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and many more. MOTOWN tells the story behind the hits as the whole Motown family fights against the odds to create the soundtrack of change in America; Motown shattered barriers, shaped our lives and made us all move to the same beat.

MOTOWN, the hit musical featuring the music of the legendary Motown catalogue and a book by Berry Gordy, closed on Broadway in January at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre and is set to return to Broadway at a Nederlander in July 2016. In the meantime, the musical continues its national tour across the U.S.

Pictured: The original Broadway cast of MOTOWN. Photo by Joan Marcus.