SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Jan 12, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — Turns out, You Can Hurry Love.
The Broadway touring production of “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations” — featuring hits including “You Can’t Hurry Love” — only takes 2.5 hours to win over and satisfy its tour audience.
The Temptation hits, sung by Broadway-caliber artists, along with a plot to provide context, added up to a great night of theater with a score with built-in meaning for generations of fans. Opening night audience members cheered as they rose for a standing ovation.
The show’s Salt Lake City stop, at the Eccles Theatre, lasts through Sunday. It has adult content and would not be a good fit for children.
“Ain’t Too Proud,” is named for the Temps song “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” (Yeah, I can’t get used to the group as The Temps, but that is apparently what they called themselves in private, to save a few syllables.)
“Ain’t Too Proud” debuted on Broadway in 2019, earned 11 Tony nominations, and a win for Best Choreography by Sergio Trujillo. That’s a key win for a show depicting the male quintet, whose members perform synchronized dance, blending smooth moves with their velvet voices. Des McAnuff directed the show.
The show, which focuses most on the early days of The Temptations (there have been 26 singers through the years), is based on a memoir by surviving group founder Otis Williams, who serves as an executive performer.
The show is all about the vocals, of course, and the actors execute all the requisite vocal acrobatics with such ’60s and ’70s hits as “My Girl,” “I Can’t Get Next to You,” “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted,” “I’m Going to Make You Love Me,” “Just My Imagination,” “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” and “War.”
The show could ride on its songs and singing alone.
But the book, by Dominque Morisseau, adds a level of history and heart to the musical. The audience learns about one member’s goal to earn a living and stay out of jail. Several members develop substance abuse problems. One, a victim of severe childhood violence, couldn’t seem to move out of that darkness and into the light.
And the personal stories play against the backdrop of the early Civil Rights movement. Some of the Temps want to sing songs that supported the fight against racism. But Motown Records pushed the group to stay non-controversial to safeguard its mainstream audience. A Black group with White fans was rare, and a pioneering achievement for that era.
The show does not offer a deep dive into history, but what it does offer is much more context than is provided by the average “jukebox musical.”
The costumes reflect the period, and the dance moves seem spot on. The set is minimal, with projections of gritty black-and-white images providing stationary urban landscapes or moving for the illusion of travel.
Standouts in the cast included Michael Andreaus as the relatively stable Williams, who narrated the story, so was either talking or singing at all times.
Also great were Harrell Homes Jr. as Melvin Franklin, Elijah Ahmad Lewis as David Ruffin, Jalen Harris as Eddie Kendricks, providing a complex and full backdrop for the tunes.
“Ain’t Too Proud’ features 31 songs, most by The Temptations, but some by their contemporaries, including the Supremes, also depicted briefly in the show.
Please be aware that this is not a feel-good musical, but one based on the real lives of flawed humans struggling when they find themselves in a worldwide spotlight.
“Ain’t Too Proud” is an important show, but not a good fit for children.
In the end, William’s character points out that life is a temporary thing, but the music that touches the soul lives on.
“Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations,” brought in by Zions Bank Broadway at the Eccles, continues with shows at 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday at the Eccles Theater, 131 S. Main St. For show or ticket information, click here.
