Tour Review: 'Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations'
The show is back in Washington D.C., this time at the National Theatre.
The biggest pitfall in the creation of the bio-jukebox musical is the act of mythmaking. When you're writing about or singing about or dancing about some of the biggest acts in the history of popular music, be it Carole King or Tina Turner or The Four Seasons or Neil Diamond or Michael Jackson or Cher, you must remember that these were/are people, real people, not deities of major and minor chords.
That's easier said than done when one of the guys in the group produces the musical.
Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations - the non-union 2nd National Tour is running at Washington D.C.'s National Theatre this week only - is executive produced by Otis Williams, the last surviving original member of The Temptations, and perhaps most importantly, the guy who owns the Temptations name. It's also based on his memoir, with the musical's book penned by the illustrious dramatist Dominique Morisseau (whose Paradise Blue is still running in a near-perfect production a mile down the street at D.C.'s Studio Theatre), which means that it's the life and times of The Temptations, as told by Otis Williams. And, as we all know, history is written by the winners.
Otis (Rudy Foster) is our narrator and structurally it's the same as any other bio-musical. There are the highs, number-one records and sold-out houses. There are the lows, fights over the spotlight, fights over equal shares, drink, drugs, women - a few of the Temptations have an issue with wanting to get more than just their ego stroked. For basically the entire first act, Otis doesn't pat himself on the back too hard, which is impressive considering the story centers around The Temps' relationship with mythical figures like Berry Gordy, Smokey Robinson, and The Supremes (Jasmine Barboa sings the hell out of those Motown songs to the point that you wonder why the musical isn't about Diana Ross) and I would want to brag about that too.
No, for a while, it's about the magic of the group. Al (Robert Crenshaw) is a stand-out, smiley, energetic, and playing the crowd, until he smacks another Temp upside the head with a beer bottle and he's kicked out of the group. He's replaced by David Ruffin (Corey Mekell at our performance, he's a swing but you wouldn't know it), who's got the energy and passion and the missing voice in their harmonies, but as Otis puts it, "David was getting addicted to the worst drug of all: the spotlight.” He says this right after David snorts a huge line of coke, which definitely seems like a worse drug to me. Regardless, they kick him out too. They have a bad habit of kicking out the audience's favorite guy.
Paul (Bryce Valle) brings the moves of the group, though Sergio Trujillo's recreation of/spin on The Temptations' choreography isn't always as precise as you'd expect it. Eddie (Lowes Moore) takes the high notes and it's a wonder he's as accurate as he is - director Des McAnuff is no stranger to these voices, having directed the original production of Jersey Boys, making him an obvious choice for this material - considering how tough some of those tunes are. Otis gives both of these guys a hard time in his recollection of events. At one point in the second act, he sets up a scene where he's about to reveal his bandmates doing something disgusting and heinous, only to show them passing around a bong. Eddie smoked pot, whatever.
Melvin (Jameson Clanton, what a voice) is the bass of the group and he gets off scot-free in Otis' retelling, presumably because the only thing he ever did to "wrong Otis" was smoke pot. When their manager Shelly (Colin Stephen Kane, playing another of the musical's executive producers) barks at the group, "Otis is the backbone of the group! Everybody knows it!", I couldn't help but not know it. Why is that? It couldn't be his voice, the quintet's fifth-most interesting. Could it be because he is the only one still alive and able to tap Morisseau on the shoulder during re-writes?
I don't blame the guy, he has a legacy to uphold. Over the decades, the group has had over twenty members and a relatively equal amount of group configurations as guys have come and gone. A lot of that is depicted in Ain't Too Proud, how the group is the most important thing and how "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." That's what I would want people to believe I believed too. Especially if I was also always right about everything all the time.
Am I taking this revision too seriously? Perhaps. I mean, Otis has been at it for over thirty years by this point. Ain't Too Proud has been around for almost eight years now, with stops on Broadway, the West End, and D.C. a couple of times, and I'm just now seeing it. But if you read Paul Stanley's book about his time in KISS or Chris Frantz's book about his time in Talking Heads or listen to Mike Love any time he talks about his invaluable contributions to The Beach Boys, you'll see a pattern too. It was Leo Tolstoy who once said, "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," but he didn't live look enough to see Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.
Regardless, Ain't Too Proud delivers the good stuff. Even Otis's self-eulogizing can't get in the way of the show's best asset: the music. Decidedly better than any tribute act, the fellas move and groove and make a case for their legacies. It's a show about brotherhood and sacrifice and working hard for what you want. That's universal. And, looking around me at D.C.'s opening night, I saw that the music of Motown, and, in this case, The Temptations, is also universal. The audience clapped and seat-danced and leaped to their feet at the show's end. That's the music talking.
Visit Broadway at the National for tickets and more information.