MOTOWN Reviews

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 11:02am

Post 'em here!

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 2:03pm

I have a feeling this is going to get excoriated by critics and that it won't affect ticket sales a bit.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 2:23pm

I think I've mentioned before, I saw Riedel mention on TheaterTalk months ago, that he thought Motown was going to be a big fat hit. Therefore, I'm not so sure the critics are going to trounce this.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 2:32pm

That would be strange to me. Obviously opinions are supposed to vary but my opinions of shows at least tend to somewhat align with the general consensus of critics. I found this show to be a bore with no book, a hideous set, atrocious direction, terrible sound design, an audience participation plan that made me want to run from the theatre and some intermittently pretty singing (the cast is talented overall). In my mind this is in close competition with Scandalous for worst new musical.

I guess I'll be curious to read what others see in this if you're right Dramamama

[RippedMan]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 2:57pm

The songs are the selling point. But I think the rest of the show is going to get trashed.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 2:59pm

Reviews for "Mowtown?"

Like it matters ...

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 4:58pm

Saw it on Tuesday. The sets are fine. Costumes are fine. Very good sound design. The acting is fine and the singing and dancing are top notch. The book is the problem. Also, the medleys get a .little numbing. Luckily you get a full song here and there. It most likely will not get raves but as mentioned above, it probably won't matter. I am kind of expecting a nomination for the girl who plays Ross. She was almost worth the price of admission.

[BWFan101]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 5:07pm

I haven't seen Motown yet. I'm curious about the audience participation aspect. I'm an introvert and things like getting called on the stage and/or singing along make me uncomfortable (unless I have a few cocktails before the show, then I'm ok).

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 5:21pm

The only real audience participation happens with a few people in the front orchestra section and during Reach Out and Touch. At the performane I attended, most people participated. Outside of those two things it is just clapping, tapping your toes and enjoying the music.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 6:14pm

Note: he didn't say he liked it (he didn't give any personal OPINION) he just said it was going to be a big hit.

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 8:04pm

It is easy to see “Motown: The Musical” as Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr.’s affectionate tribute to himself...takes chutzpah to new heights..[But] if you love the music of Motown, nothing will stop you from enjoying this musical.
Motown The Musical Review. Jackson 5, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye Brought to Broadway

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 8:05pm

Thank god we have the NewYorkTheater review in!

[AntV]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 8:21pm

The article on the homepage has the AP, Backstage and AM New York reviews.

Updated On: 4/14/13 at 08:21 PM

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 8:25pm

The AP is mixed:
"The 2½-hour show, about Motown Records under founder Berry Gordy, opened Sunday at The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre completely unbalanced: The songs are staggering, the book utterly flimsy.
...
Charles Randolph-Wright proves a director with real skill, able to seamlessly juggle an insane amount of songs, dozens of scenes and harness some quite stunning performances, led by a go-for-it Brandon Victor Dixon as Gordy and Valisia LeKae as Diana Ross, who especially shines during an ad lib moment with the audience."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/review-motown-musical-has-a-staggering-soundtrack-but-a-flimsy-book/2013/04/14/fd4cf598-a561-11e2-9e1c-bb0fb0c2edd9_story.html

----

AM NY gives the show two stars, but doesn't have many positive things to say about it. So..negative?:
"“Jersey Boys,” which is undeniably the best of the jukebox genre, unhesitatingly addressed the Four Seasons’ gritty past, while “Motown” hides all traces of scandal under the rug. Even the racial tensions of the period are addressed too fleetingly to make an impact.

Ironically, while “Motown” bemoans how the music industry was ultimately swallowed up by corporate giants that wooed away Gordy’s major clients with wild offers, the musical is essentially a company history section of a corporate website."

http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/theater-review-motown-the-musical-2-stars-1.5071506

----

Backstage is mixed to negative, with a C-:
"According to the Playbill for “Motown: The Musical,” the show stuffs 67 songs into its two-hour-and-45-minute running time. Such abundance suggests that impresario Berry Gordy—who created the fabulously successful music factory and has written and produced this entertainment about its history—has strong convictions about what his audience wants. If you are looking to bathe in nostalgia evoked by beloved tunes while watching talented and committed professionals do their industrious best to locate the magic of legendary performers, this is the show for you. If you prefer a well-written story with multidimensional characters that digs beneath the surface and uses song with dramatic acumen, then steer clear."

http://www.backstage.com/review/ny-theater/broadway/motown-the-musical-bathes-berry-gordy-diana-ross/ Updated On: 4/14/13 at 08:25 PM

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 9:10pm

The Hollywood Reporter is mixed:
" You can’t hurry love, but apparently you can hurtle through 25 years of pop history without depth or complexity if Motown: The Musical is any indication. With its narrowly self-serving perspective and simplistic connect-the-dots plotting, Berry Gordy’s book makes Jersey Boys look like Eugene O’Neill. And Charles Randolph-Wright’s direction struggles to get a fluid handle on the music empire founder’s superficial chronicle of his legendary Detroit hit factory. But there’s no denying the power and energy of the show’s arsenal of killer tunes."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/motown-musical-theater-review-439314

----

Chicago Tribune is mixed to negative:
"If only he'd first taken "Motown the Musical" out of town.
He should have started with home first. "Motown," which is narratively anchored around the label's 25th anniversay show in Pasadena, Calif., in 1983 and flashes backward from there, has no clear point of view, no rich storytelling and nowhere near enough Detroit.
...
The concert scenes are the best scenes, and the music still sometimes thrills (when the numbers are not squelched and squashed). How could these songs not thrill? And, there is one thing at the Lunt-Fontanne to really love: the talent in the show acts as a reminder of why Motown became Motown in the first place.
Whopping young talent, given a big break by the right man at the right time, a man who should have stepped back now and watched and listened."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/theaterloop/sc-ent-0414-motown-broadway-review-20130414,0,2588592.column

----

NJ Newsroom is mixed to positive:
"Smoothly representing various members of The Temptations, The Commodores, The Marvelettes and The Vandellas, among others, as well as popping up as various icons like Gladys Knight, Jackie Wilson, Mary Wells and Stevie Wonder, members of the ensemble sharply portray as many as four and five individuals apiece. Thanks in part to the flashy period costumes designed by Esosa and the energetic vintage choreography created by Patricia Wilcox and Warren Adams, these exuberant impersonations are highly satisfying.

Randolph-Wright’s staging keeps the action moving quickly while designer David Korins’ stylized settings cleverly frame the scenes in various ways. The lighting designed by Natasha Katz contributes energy and beautiful colors to the proceedings, which warmly celebrate a towering song stack of musical memories."
http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/movies/motown-the-musical-broadway-review-motowns-greatest-hits-stack-up-as-a-show

----

NBC is positive:
"Emilio Sosa’s costumes are as glitzy as you’d anticipate, with an emphasis on sequins. David Korins’ scenery, with a reliance on sliding panels, effectively transports us from the label’s Detroit home, “Hitsville, U.S.A.,” to Paris and back to Pasadena.

From a structural standpoint, “Motown” will be compared to the far superior “Jersey Boys.” Still, there are worse problems to have than a bloated script. “Motown” has a built-in audience and is likely to prosper for the foreseeable future: reports have the musical enjoying healthier advance ticket sales than even “Matilda” and “Lucky Guy.” Chalk up one more hit, at age 83, for Berry Gordy."
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/the-scene/motown-review-kahn-202849641.html

----

Entertainment Weekly is mixed with a B-:
"At its best, the new Broadway show — produced and scripted by Gordy himself — plays like a theme night on an all-star season of American Idol, packing in nearly 60 songs from a wide swath of the label's most recognizable artists. But between the energetic musical performances, backed by a tight 18-piece orchestra and boasting spirited choreography by Patirica Wilcox and Warren Adams, the cast is left to grapple with Berry's frankly amateurish book.

Granted, it must be tough to condense decades of history, dozens of artists, and all those glorious songs into a coherent narrative. And naturally, Gordy presents a rose-tinted account of his history (his one stab at self-deprecation comes in an awkward morning-after bedroom scene, when his newly minted lover Diana Ross reassures him, 'It's all right, I'm a little tired, too')."

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20364394_20690921,00.html Updated On: 4/14/13 at 09:10 PM

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 10:04pm

Variety is negative:
"Berry Gordy (take your bow, Brandon Victor Dixon, but don’t overdo it), meanwhile, is home in L.A., framed by his gold and platinum records and brooding at the injustice of it all, that this tribute should come from the “family” of musicians he discovered, but who deserted him for the big labels once they became famous and wanted to make real money.

In this bitterly reflective mood, Gordy recalls the beginning of “the dream,” on the memorable day in 1938 when Joe Louis became the first black heavyweight champ and fired his own ambitions. That’s the signal for David Korins’ set (with an assist from Daniel Brodie’s projections) to do its clunky job of transporting Gordy to a series of clumsy book scenes that show Gordy in the most saintly light possible while recounting both the triumphs and setbacks of building Motown Records. (The name, by the way, comes to him in a blush of inspiration as he searches for “something that captures our roots, like The Motor City, but it feels more like a town to me … Motortown … Motortown … Motown.”)
...
The less said about the acting the better. (Diana Ross could sue for defamation for Valisia LeKae’s grisly rendering of her.) But there are some great, big, glorious voices in this show, LeKae’s among them, so it doesn’t seem fair to condemn good singers for being lousy actors."
http://variety.com/2013/legit/reviews/legit-review-motown-1200364348/

----

Village Voice is mixed:
"It's all too much (in fact, the scene where we learn JFK has been assassinated gets an unwanted giggle), but the script moves better in Act Two, with less jokiness getting in the way of the motion. And besides, there's that music, which is still exciting, whether it be rousingly brassy ("Dancing in the Street"), quirky ("Square Biz"), or just plain sweet ("My Guy").

The Charles Randolph-Wright-directed production is attractive, and his cast members prove to be worthy interpreters. Gifted Brandon Victor Dixon does his best with the central but shadowy part of Gordy, who basically comes off like a nice guy with a mission. Valisia Lekae captures Diana Ross's shimmery glamour and ambition. (She's seen singing "Good Morning Heartache" on a large screen as it's announced that Liza Minnelli won the Oscar. Before that, Gordy tells her, "You've been acting your whole life," then diplomatically adds, "We all have.")"
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymusto/2013/04/motown_the_musi_2.php


----

NY Magazine is negative:
"In a production whose very title is a brand, cynical almost goes without saying. Even the show curtain features a backlit, gold-leafed Motown M. Yet the cynicism goes much deeper than that. In telling the story of Berry Gordy, founder and longtime chairman of the once-great record company, the book writer (one Berry Gordy, assisted by various script doctors) manages to include at least snippets of 59 songs, including a few new ones, associated with Motown artists. What a coincidence that the lead producers of the show include, yes, Berry Gordy and Doug Morris, CEO of Sony Music, which controls the catalog.
This would be of only trifling concern—Broadway is a business, after all—if the show were good. But that’s where the naïveté comes in. To a roomful of people who have rarely if ever been part of the creation of a major musical, perhaps it seemed sufficient to tie a few dozen presold numbers together with just enough thread to tell a story. (Mamma Mia! has so far grossed more than $534 million on Broadway doing just that.) But the problem with jukeboxes has never been the songs. The problem is that when songs are forced to tell a tale they weren’t designed for, they lose their deeper effectiveness, and usually end up like leeches, no longer supporting but sucking. In that respect, Motown is the worst jukebox (with the best tunes) I’ve ever encountered. The skeletal book has all the finesse of nightclub patter, with its and-then-I-wrote monotony and jaw-dropping segues (“My dream started long before that . . .”) to get from here to there. There are even reporters and announcers saying things like “It all started in a little house in Detroit.” They might as well be traffic signs."
http://www.vulture.com/2013/04/theater-review-motown-the-musical.html?mid=googlenews Updated On: 4/14/13 at 10:04 PM

[ucjrdude902]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 10:11pm

Who wants to play "Let's Predict The Pull Quotes!"

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 10:12pm

The New York Times is mixed to negative:
"The telegraphic nature of the book derives partly from the impossibility of telling the stories of all the major Motown artists in a single musical. (The Supremes alone inspired their own musical, “Dreamgirls.”) For a full and coherent history of Mr. Gordy’s game-changing music factory, you’d need to check out Gerald Posner’s engrossing book “Motown: Music, Money, Sex and Power.”
...
But while the audience lapped up virtually all of the musical numbers — even Rick James and Teena Marie drop into the party, briefly and probably unnecessarily — the wildest applause erupted when Raymond Luke Jr., one of two performers who portray the boyish Jackson (along with the young Berry and the young Stevie Wonder), came bounding onstage, exuding the self-confidence and charm of the preternaturally seasoned performer he’s playing.

For all the richness of its gold-and-platinum-plated soundtrack, “Motown” would be a much more satisfying nostalgia trip if Mr. Gordy and his collaborators were more effective curators of both story and song, rather than trying to encompass the whole of the label’s fabled history in two and a half hours. Irresistible as much of the music is, I often had the frustrating impression that I was being forced to listen to an LP being played at the dizzying, distorting speed of a 45."
http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/theater/reviews/motown-the-musical-berry-gordys-story.html?_r=0&pagewanted=1

[Rodgerdodger]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 10:14pm

A nit pick: On what planet is the Beatles' "Money (That's What I Want)" the best known version?

[mpd4165]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 10:14pm

ucjrdude902, I'll throw this one in the mix.

"Motown is the ... Jukebox with the best tunes I've ever encountered." - NY Mag.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 10:20pm

Wow, the book is seriously getting ripped to shreds.


TheaterMania is negative:
"Rather than giving us a complex portrait on this fascinating businessman, the show's shoddily written book is essentially a self-serving theatrical memoir in which Gordy gets to tell his life story. But just as importantly, the piece also serves as a celebration of the music that brought America's black and white populations together in a way nothing else ever did. Perhaps that is why Gordy and his creative team, led by director Charles Randolph-Wright, seem so worried they left out an audience favorite that they crammed in more than 50 hits. The result is that too few of the beloved Motown classics receive the kind of full-scale, all-out renditions they deserve. An early, extended version of Martha & The Vandellas' "Dancing in the Street" proves not just a high point (abetted by energetic choreography from Patricia Wilcox and Warren Adams), but a false promise of what lies ahead."
http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/reviews/04-2013/motown-the-musical_64878.html

----

Bloomberg.com is mixed:
"Over the course of this juicy soul jukebox show, we’ll watch irresistible performances of the Detroit-born classics that brought “race music” into the mainstream, from Jackie Wilson’s “Reet Petite” to the Supremes’s “Stop In The Name Of Love” and the Jackson Five’s “The Love You Save.”
There’s more unknown talent on display here -- poured into Esosa’s slinky skintight sequined gowns and tuxedos whose lapels peak somewhere north of male earlobes -- than a decade of Wednesday nights at Harlem’s Apollo Theater."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-15/hot-motown-bows-to-berry-gordy-the-call-nyc-theater.html

----

Time Out NY is mixed with three out of five stars:
"Motown—The Musical left my eyes tired. For half of the show, they were glued to the stage; for the other half, they rolled up in disbelief to the farthest reaches of their sockets. Rarely has a Broadway musical offered such extremes of talent and inanity. The mountains are thrillingly high: glorious snatches of more than 50 classic pop songs from the catalogs of such Motown artists as Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, the Four Tops, the Temptations and the Jackson 5. But the valleys are abysmally low. The book sections of the show, in which Motown founder and Motown coproducer Berry Gordy Jr. traces 45 years of his own journey, is a compost heap of dubious history, wooden acting and risible dialogue—Little Berry: “I wanna be Joe Louis!” Pop: “Now son, there already is a Joe Louis. Just keep God inside you and be the best you you can be, and that will make me so proud”—all set beneath a flickering neon halo of self-hagiography."
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/motownthe-musical Updated On: 4/14/13 at 10:20 PM

[loliveve]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 10:38pm

ucjrdude902- I'll play!

"a celebration of the music that brought America's black and white populations together in a way nothing else ever did." -TheatreMania

"jubilant jukebox musical ... loaded with great singers, tons of energy, and dozens of classic Motown roof-raisers" -Variety

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 10:43pm

Isn't the book the problem we'd heard about this all along? That its being criticized seems to be what was expected.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 10:43pm

double post

Updated On: 4/14/13 at 10:43 PM

[ucjrdude902]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 10:44pm

Ooo good ones loliveve!