London’s latest musical tells the story of how the Temptations came together over sixty years ago from a mix of different vocal duos and quartets and gradually worked their way into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 as one the most successful R&B groups in history. The members fought each other, drug and alcohol addictions and their own mental health issues, but the group survived and prospered due to them ruthlessly reinventing themselves by replacing the singers who either quit, were fired or who died.
The show is ultimately based on the autobiography of the group’s founder and longtime leader Otis Williams, who at 81 is the only surviving member of the original group. And unlike many current musicals the songs do not drive the narrative but are sign posts to moments in time, showing where the group was artistically, mentally and who was in that current line up. So you can thankfully just blissfully enjoy the music without trying to understand what the song is trying to tell us in context to the story.
A fatherly Sifiso Mazibuko leads the 21-member cast as Otis, the Temptations’ second tenor. Tosh Wanogho-Maud in a stand out performance, is a wildly charismatic singer and dancer as the talented but tormented lead tenor David Ruffin; Cameron Bernard Jones is endearingly sweet as bass singer Melvin Franklin; Kyle Cox has a quiet fragility as baritone Paul Williams; and Mitchell Zhangazha is a real crowd-pleaser with a powerful voice as tenor Eddie Kendricks.
The musical’s score includes every major Temptations hit, as well as many other Motown classics originally sung by the Supremes, Edwin Star, Jimmy Ruffin and Stevie Wonder and has the audience lost in the harmonies and choreography of a show that is so tight and precise yet has managed not to lose any of its’ soul.
Ain’t too proud is a story of hope, loss and perseverance all beautifully camouflaged in the sweetest soul music and dance moves one could ever hope to see on the London stage.
A must see.
