Student blogger Evan Fitzpatrick reflects on the Broadway musical, Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations playing November 8-10 at The Hanover Theatre & Conservatory for the Performing Arts.
My Girl…
I Can’t Get Next to You…
Ain’t Too Proud to Beg…
It might be Just My Imagination, but I am really looking forward to Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations at The Hanover Theatre. The best thing about jukebox musicals is the feeling of being at a concert today performed by classic artists of the past. The audience is transported to the artist’s time with a unique portal to their lives.
Most people know that The Temptations had a meteoric rise from the streets of Detroit to international superstardom, but most don’t know the bandmates’ individual stories. Calling their likelihood of success improbable is accurate given their rough beginnings. The Temptations wooed the world with athletic, previously unseen choreography and unforgettable, silky-smooth harmonies. Together, they defined a generation of R&B music greatness and earned four Top 100 number one hits and 14 R&B number ones. The group thrived under the production and writing of the legendary Smokey Robinson at Motown Records.
Using the storyline from the book by Dominique Morrisseau, founding member Otis Williams serves as the show’s autobiographical narrator. The thread that binds the story is chronological, weaving stories of brotherhood, strife, heartbreak and triumph and charting The Temptations’ lost and acquired band members as time passes. Ultimately, the Motown group lands in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame.
The show touches upon political and racial unrest in American History larger than the theatre’s four walls: race riots in Detroit, Dr. Martin Luter King’s assassination, and open animosity to people of color in the southern US of the 1960s. The audience should note how The Temptations’ love song about loss, “I Wish It Would Rain,” becomes a poignant tribute to Dr. King.
Behind the scenes, the journey of one of the actors in Ain’t Too Proud is a Hanover Theatre homecoming. Boston-native Jamaal Greene, who plays both Smokey Robinson and band member Damon Harris, first performed on our stage in 2012 as noted in a recent interview with reporter, Kevin Baldwin. The Hanover Theatre is so excited to welcome Jamaal back home!
Get Ready: We’ll listen to Grammy Award-winning songs while watching Tony Award-winning moves because Ain’t Too Proud won Best Choreography in 2019. Nominated for twelve Tonys, Ain’t Too Proud will have everyone singing and dancing.
(As for me, my Papa certainly wasn’t a Rollin’ Stone, but he did grow up in Detroit. True Story.)
I’ll see you at The Hanover Theatre.
