‘Motown the Musical’ falls short of its potential

Motown the Musical (Courtesy)

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Motown

Motown the Musical (Courtesy)

Just because you’re starting with a great jukebox doesn’t mean your jukebox musical will be great.

The latest case in point: “Motown the Musical,” launching its new national tour through Sunday at The Smith Center.

Too many undeveloped characters, too many song snippets, too many missed opportunities mean “Motown” lacks narrative momentum and emotional punch.

If all you want is a cavalcade of Hitsville classics, re-created by a talented, hard-working cast — decked out in evocative costumes, surrounded by clever sets, accompanied by an energetic orchestra — then “Motown the Musical” will satisfy.

To be sure, it’s got a great beat and you can dance to it. But if you’re looking for a musical that strikes some sort of balance between hit parade and compelling drama, “Motown” is most definitely not that musical. (“Dreamgirls,” a fictionalized rise-of-the-Supremes tale, definitely is.)

Part of “Motown’s” problem: trying to do, and be, too much.

Motown founder Berry Gordy adapted his 1994 autobiography (with some, but not enough, help from script consultants David Goldsmith and Dick Scanlan) for the show, which kicks off with a rousing all-star sing-off between the Temptations and the Four Tops.

It’s a rehearsal for the 1983 TV special “Motown 25” — and Gordy (Chester Gregory, reprising his Broadway role) is nowhere to be seen. He’s at home, pondering the rifts tearing apart his musical family.

“Motown the Musical” then flashes back to reveal how Gordy builds that family, launching legendary stars from smooth Smokey Robinson (David Kaverman) and dynamic Marvin Gaye (Jarran Muse) to schoolgirl-turned-diva Diana Ross (Allison Semmes), in the process building a “Sound of Young America” that helped bridge the yawning gap between black and white in the contentious 1960s.

Two sequences — Gaye’s haunting “What’s Going On” (at the end of Act One) and the second-act opener, the Temps’ blistering “Ball of Confusion” — demonstrate “Motown the Musical’s” potential. Blending powerful music, Natasha Katz’s dramatic lighting, David Korins’ flexible scenic design and Daniel Brodie’s resonant video projections, the numbers create an emotional jolt, forging powerful, food-for-thought links between then and now.

Enjoy them while you can, because “Motown the Musical” all too often reverts to a lockstep, “and then we did” approach as director Charles Randolph-Wright keeps the story — including the Gordy-Ross romance — sputtering along until the next medley of hits rouses the show from its dramatic torpor.

But it didn’t have to be this way. At one point, Smokey Robinson bursts into a Motown “Quality Control” session and, in a few lines of stilted dialogue, describes the charm school, dance lessons and training that helped transform the label’s performers from inner-city kids into polished, stylish entertainers.

Now there’s a musical number I’d love to see — but “Motown the Musical” would rather tell, than show, how the magic was made.

As a result, “Motown the Musical” qualifies as a good time — at least some of the time. But that doesn’t necessarily make it a good show.

Read more from Carol Cling at reviewjournalcom. Contact her at ccling@reviewjournal.com and follow @CarolSCling on Twitter.