“The only thing that lives forever is the music,” says founder Otis Williams in the musical Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, currently playing at the Kennedy Center Opera House. But thanks to this lively and infectious touring musical, that will no longer be true, Author Dominique Morisseau and Director Des McAnuff (employing, as it is billed, music and lyrics from the Legendary Motown Catalogue) have also immortalized all the details of this absorbing show biz fable—the humble beginnings of 5 high school friends transplanted to Detroit, the meteoric rise to fame, and the eventual demons leading to the break up of the #1 musical group in the history of R&B.
The story, which has all the energy, style, flash, and high drama of Jersey Boys crossed with Dreamgirls, jumps off the stage from the top when the legendary group open with their first major hit, “The Way You Do The Things You Do”. Otis (Michael Andreaus), the main narrator for our musical journey, gives us the accelerated version of how the “classic five” Temptations that dominated the charts banded together—hand picking iconic bass Melvin Franklin (Harrell Holms Jr.)—with his mother’s permission—adding a competing duo, Eddie Kendricks (Jalen Harris), and Paul Williams (Brian C. Binion at this performance), and finally replacing a hot-headed lead singer (Devin Price) with the golden-voiced David Ruffin (E. Clayton Cornelius). After a restroom run-in with Motown impresario Berry Gordy (Jeremy Kelsey), who takes them on and hooks them up with genius songwriter Smokey Robinson (Derek Adams), the Ruffin-led “My Girl” climbs to the top of the charts and starts the roller coaster ride of fame and excess.
This central quintet of the show are fascinating to watch, delivering one solid gold Motown classic after another with the constant smooth moves (in the iconic style of the Temptations courtesy of Sergio Trujillo’s Tony Award-winning choreography). They constantly move, sing and carry us on a musical adventure from number to number as we watch them get too famous. They also give us a greater understanding of the men behind the legendary names and faces.
Andreas as Otis is a commanding and genial narrator to accompany us along this musical thrill ride. As the five young men become successful, we also see what results from that sudden success. After a solid 90 minutes of fun Motown mania and engaging stories, we reach that dreaded point of any jukebox bio-musical—the first act finale. Anyone familiar with the genre knows this high point of the show is when the party stops and crap starts to go down. Jersey Boys breaks with the mob pulling serial gambler Tommy DeVito out of The Four Seasons to get their money back. Tina Turner leaves a physically abusive Ike in Tina. Cher makes the decision to divorce an emotionally abusive Sonny in The Cher Show. Gerry Goffin leaves Carole King for another woman in Beautiful. Even the Dreams fire contentious Effie White pre-show in the granddaddy of all backstage musicals, Dreamgirls (not so very loosely “inspired” by the breakup of Temptations’ contemporaries and collaborators, Diana Ross & The Supremes). And at the end of this feel good first act, the group painfully decides to break with the undependable and absent Ruffin who has been descending down a rabbit hole of cocaine abuse.
After a fun and furious rise to the top, as fabulous and charismatic as Andreaus, Cornelius, Harris, Holms and Binion are on the way up, they are even more compelling watching them tumble and fall on the way down, salvaging what they can of the group’s reputation and momentum on the way. The first of many hard business decisions comes with the legal firing of Ruffin at the top of act 2. Despite his dismissal, Cornelius takes no prisoners as Ruffin humorously makes his exit clearly on his terms. Harris as Kendricks, the lone holdout for firing Ruffin and virtually every other group issue, becomes stronger and more vocal, standing up to Williams’ authority based on his initial promise of five equal members in what seems to now be a autocracy. Holms’ lovable and loyal Franklin remains by Otis’ side as long as his health will allow him, and Binion as Paul Williams takes us down the saddest path from alcohol to drugs to demise. All of them give moving performances that equal the high energy of the first act, without missing a step or a harmony in the still almost nonstop score.
Unlike most biomusicals, the tale of the Tempations isn’t linear. The breakups aren’t always final. There are replacements (most notably Dwayne P. Mitchell in a hilarious arc as Ruffin’s replacement Dennis Edwards, funny and frenetic til his own issues surface, leading to his eventual exit), solo acts, a competing group fronted by Kendricks and Ruffin, legal battles, reunions, new combinations, and all the egos, alcohol, drugs, loss, women, and mental illness that haunt most showbiz stories until time and fate come round to be the ultimate dictator on who is in and out of the group. Either way, the story, even when turning darkest, never falters to hold the audiences in the palms of their snapping and clapping hands.
On the technical side, Robert Brill’s set is minimalistic, mostly just a bare-ish stage with constant projections by Peter Nigrini that just indicate time and space by a barrage of locales, images, and song titles that just migrate across the back wall. But in a way, this less is definitely more because there is nothing to detract from the visual main event of the constant flash and movement of the Temptations. Add Howell Binkley’s theatrical concert lighting, which makes everything pop with the proper dramatic emphasis, and the visual magic is complete.
Paul Tazewell’s costumes are a pleasant enough parade of sharkskin suits and other more brightly tailored suits and jackets, all allowing fluid motion for the dance. He gets a little more creative latitude with his few looks for the stylish Supremes (Amber Mariah Talley as Diana Ross, Traci Elaine Lee as Mary Wilson, and Shayla Brielle G. as Florence Ballard) in their glamourous gowns for their prime time TV appearances.
If there is a flaw in this adrenaline-filled, electrifying songfest, it is Morisseau’s thoroughly unoriginal book (based on Otis Williams’ autobiography, The Temptations, with Patricia Romanowski), which somehow inexplicably received a Tony nomination (losing to an even more baffling nominee, the totally misguided Tootsie). Rather than writing scenes to flesh out the action, she depends mostly on Otis breaking the fourth wall and simply narrating the story as if reciting a sixth grade book report on the Motown superstars. Even worse, the show flies highest where it should, with the music (excellent recreations and arrangements by Kenny Seymour, orchestrations by Harold Wheeler). But Morisseau routinely cuts numbers short or breaks them for more exposition about what David did or how Eddie felt, killing the magic with amateurish story-telling. Fortunately the performances, the direction, and the material itself is almost bullet-proof and ricochets her collateral damage.
McAnuff is an accomplished director and expertly steers the action clearly through the scenes from song to song, weaving a tight story while overcoming Morriseau’s weak writing. Trujillo is the rockstar here who gives the show all the flashy look and slick dance moves so strongly affiliated with the legendary group. This team understands and enhances the material, and the actors definitely sell it. In the end, as Otis (the only surviving “classic five” Temptation) told us 2 ½ hours ago, the only thing that matters is the music, and that’s the takeaway. When we’ve left the theatre, we won’t remember the few shortcomings, just the multi-talented young men who just told us a unique story of one of the most influential singing groups in recording history with one of the most unforgettable song catalogs ever—the way they do the things they do.
All photos courtesy of 2023 Emilio Madrid
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes with one intermission.
Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations currently plays through February 18, 2024, at the Opera House at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F Street NW, Washington DC 20566. For tickets, call the box office at 202.467.4600 or purchase online .