‘Motown’ takes a historical stroll through music
Motown history has a new life.
The record company that has been making a mark on the music industry since its beginnings more than 50 years ago on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, will take the spotlight in “Motown: The Musical,” opening Tuesday for a nearly two-week run at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa.
The touring production of the Broadway show will tell the tale of the storied record label through the eyes of the man who founded it, Berry Gordy Jr.
The musical, featuring more than 40 songs, including “My Girl,” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” shares Gordy’s journey in discovering Diana Ross and The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and many other Motown icons.
“It’s a huge honor and very important to me to play Mr. Gordy,” said Julius Thomas III, who stars as the record producer in the touring version of the show. “And it’s special for me in so many ways because I have never played someone who is alive. My research walks around.”
Thomas, who grew up on Jackson Street in Gary, Ind., a few doors down from the childhood home of the Jackson family, said he always wanted to emulate Michael of the Jackson 5. He would repeatedly play the band’s “Maybe Tomorrow” and sing along.
“I was obsessed,” Thomas said. “I felt like my life paralleled with Michael’s, and it’s just so exciting for me especially to play Berry Gordy, the man who changed the world with the face of his music.”
The musical, produced by Tony Award-winning producer Kevin McCollum of “Rent” and directed by Charles Randolph-Wright, will also share the love story of Gordy and Ross. Thomas, a veteran of Broadway’s “Porgy and Bess” and “The Scottsboro Boys,” was an original “Motown” ensemble member.
Playing the lead man, he said, has placed a weight on his shoulders, but he has taken on the challenge with gusto. When he needed clarity on something, Thomas would check in with Gordy.
He might ask Gordy, who has continued his involvement in fine-tuning the musical and would appear at rehearsals and shows, how he felt during a particular scene or what was going through his mind during a particular memory.
“It’s been a fantastic challenge,” Thomas said. “It’s fun because I can go up to him asking questions. He could give me that information, and it helped making it as perfect as possible.”
Darryl Archibald, the show’s musical director and conductor, said he grew up with Motown music and that when he visits cities across the nation for the tour, he finds it interesting to learn which hit or group is cheered most when an audience hears the beginning sounds.
“I was in San Francisco, taking notes, and they just started playing Jackson 5,” Archibald remembered. “These two elderly women jumped up and started dancing at their seats. That’s the thing — it’s a really fun show and one of the most rewarding because you can feel how the audience connects to the music.
“People get to relive moments in history with the JFK and MLK assassinations and you hear them say, ‘I just saw my entire childhood in two and a half hours.’”
Archibald, who handled the music for “The Lion King” and “Wicked,” said the music in “Motown” has its own character. Theatergoers begin to realize the vast library Motown encompasses, he said.
The challenge for the performers and musicians, he noted, is to cover Motown throughout the years, beginning from the 1950s to the 1980s. The styles throughout the decades are different, ranging from club music and R&B to disco and funk.
The Los Angeles-based music director said he talks to Gordy regularly, since the 85-year-old wants his intentions in creating the company to be properly conveyed.
Asked if Gordy might attend a show at Segerstrom, he said, “Cross your fingers.”
Regardless of whether the music industry magnate appears at an upcoming performance, Archibald promises an exciting evening filled with timeless sounds.
“There’s a certain energy you feel from this show that you have never felt before because you don’t know what to expect,” Archibald said. “You hear the hits as you remember them.”
If You Go
What: “Motown”
When: Tuesday through June 28; 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays
Where: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa
Cost: Tickets start at $29
Information: (714) 556-2787 or scfta.org