Review: MOTOWN at the Paramount is a Truncated, Desperately Spun Disappointment

That old idiom, "History is written by the victors" kept ringing in my head last night as I watched the National Touring Company of "Motown: The Musical" at the Paramount Theatre. Or rather one could say, "History is written by the one telling it." This retelling of the life of Berry Gordy and his creation of Motown Records with a book written by Berry Gordy based on the autobiography by Berry Gordy comes across like a jock in the locker room bragging about all his conquests. But with such bad writing and storytelling coupled with an overabundance of half songs the show feels like a bunch of skewed half-truths and amounts to a tepid and forced evening.

The show takes you from 1938 in Gordy's youth to 1983 and the 25th anniversary concert of Motown Records. And through those years we see how Berry Gordy (Chester Gregory) discovered and created the careers of the likes of Smokey Robinson (Jesse Nager), Marvin Gaye (Jarran Muse), Michael Jackson (J.J. Batteast) and of course Diana Ross (Allison Semmes).

Now if you're looking to attend this show for a glimpse into the history of that era then you'll bound to be disappointed. With it's horribly written, overly expository, rushed and stiff dialog there's just not much in the way of decent storytelling here and it all makes Gordy come across like some all knowing, benevolent All-Father surrounded by petulant children who betray him. OK then maybe you're coming just to hear those great old Motown songs. Well, you'll be disappointed there too or at least I was. With over 50 songs from the Motown catalogue jammed into the 2 hour and 40 minute show you may get a few full numbers but for the most part it's medleys and snippets of those great songs so by the time you can get excited about hearing your favorite tune it's over. Not to mention the fact that the sound mix of the band and the singers was so bad that it was a good thing we already know all the lyrics as you could barely hear or understand them.

So no good story and not enough (or too much depending on how you look at it) of the music. Well how about the performances then? Sure, the performers are all amazing singers and nail their respective numbers (however short they may be). But amazing vocals aside, the performers all come across as caricatures of the legendary greats, mugging, overplaying and chewing the scenery for laughs every chance they get. All except Gregory who just feels stiff talking about how great Berry Gordy is and really only comes alive when singing.

Just like the recent Janis Joplin bio-musical, "Motown: The Musical" feels like a forced march down memory lane relying on nostalgia to overshadow a lack of writing or really anything to say. And so with my three letter rating system I give "Motown: The Musical" a great big NAH. Stay home and listen to the original great recordings rather than see parts of them in a show that may as well be called "Motown: The Berry Gordy Is Awesome Musical".

"Motown: The Musical" performs at the Paramount Theatre through June 12th. For tickets or information visit Seattle Theatre Group online at www.stgpresents.org.

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