After decades under the blinding spotlight, Otis Williams has seen it all: brotherhood, glory and conflict.
The Temptations’ founder glued the band together, later serving as a wedge that drove them apart. But as Williams boasts in Ain’t Too Proud, the only thing that lives forever, beyond struggles and strife, is the music.
Many of The Temptations’s tunes will awaken foot taps from nostalgia-seeped corners of your memory. With music and lyrics from The Temptations’ six-decade R&B catalogue and a book by Dominique Morisseau, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations follows the band’s true progression from its Detroit roots to pioneering psychedelic soul.
Broadway Across Canada’s production, which ran at the National Arts Centre from Dec. 26 to 31, reflected tribulations inside and outside the band with suave style and well-timed beats.
Directed by Des McAnuff, Ain’t Too Proud sticks to the familiar formula of jukebox bio-musicals. Big talent mixed with even bigger egos create friction, but in the end, a mutual devotion to music cements the band’s legacy. What sets Ain’t Too Proud apart from others in the genre is its tasteful glamour, thanks to Sergio Trujillo’s electrifying choreography and the magnetizing cast.
The show devotes most of its time to the “Classic Five” line-up: Otis Williams, David Ruffin, Melvin Franklin, Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams (no relation to Otis).
The show shined brightest when The Temptations performed as a unit. Slick and smooth dance numbers such as “My Girl” were satisfyingly in sync, down to every blazer flip and jazzy spin.
Equally riveting were the angsty sequences rife with emotional tension. Act One closer “I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)” steered culminating vexations to a peak, as the four band members fell into a united dance line against Ruffin’s destructive antics.
Group numbers also derived the richest vocals. Each song delivered a unique flavour, particularly the exhilarating “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” or “I Can’t Get Next To You.” The sturdy layer of tantalizing harmonies from the rumbling bass to charming falsetto remained beautifully consistent.
As tight and together as they were, Ain’t Too Proud allowed individual performers to shine. Spearheading lead vocals, Elijah Ahmad Lewis’s effortlessly cool Ruffin dropped into jazz splits with ease and slipped right back up with fiery skill. Harrell Holmes Jr.’s bass notes performing as sweet-natured Franklin was earthy and thunderous.
Kendrick’s distinct falsetto, sung by Jalen Harris, contrasted Holmes’s grounding bass, winding up to an aching, feather-light “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me).” Meanwhile, E. Clayton Cornelious’s portrayal of Paul provided much of the show’s emotion, from his bright-eyed beginning teaching dance moves to the group to his end.
Michael Andreaus’s narration as Otis anchored the story’s darkest moments. Andreaus’s wide-eyed portrayal of the youthful band founder ushered a touch of hopefulness, which later plummeted to helpless despair following the eventual deaths of his son and bandmates. His vulnerability peaked in “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,” when reminiscing with longing as the only remaining original band member.
Music director Jonathan Smith led an intoxicating orchestra. An agitated, consistent bassline grumbled beneath the emotional strain within The Temptations and the outside world. Orchestrations roared to life with proud brass blares for “Ball of Confusion (That’s What The World Is Today),” The Temptations’s political-themed protest song citing the oppression of the 1960s.
Equally mesmerizing was the adept mix of projections and minimal physical sets, thanks to scenic design headed by Robert Brill. Bright projections moved the band through performances, flashing city names for tour destinations amid swanky spotlights which intensified stage apprehensions.
Subtle props—such as metal prison bunks for Otis’s six-month stint in juvenile detention—amplified harder-hitting moments, whereas the emptier staging for musical numbers allowed the enriching dancing and vocals to fill the stage without distraction.
A gleaming tribute to The Temptations’s legacy, Ain’t Too Proud seamlessly blended the joys and sorrows of fame without sacrificing its tactful charm. A realistic depiction of stardom is the foundation of the show’s success.
Broadway Across Canada’s next production is ‘Disney’s Frozen,’ coming to the National Arts Centre on Feb. 22.
Featured image provided by Broadway Across Canada.
