The Magic of Motown Festival Theatre Edinburgh 25th January 2024 Review
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The Magic of Motown at The Festival Theatre Edinburgh tonight was as usual bringing a lot of people into the theatre. Some were obviously of an age to have heard these sounds first time around, but others were far too young for that. This is the enduring power of the sounds of classic Motown artists and songs – every new generation seems to rediscover them and claim them for their own.
This show is one of many musical tribute shows produced by Entertainers and the format has been a hugely successful one for the company with every show catering for a specific audience, although many were probably just out for a bit of fun tonight and wanting just what this show obviously provides - to be entertained.
The show format is simple, non-stop hit after hit by some very talented performers and covering the classic early Motown years of iconic performers like The Supremes, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Isley Brothers, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, The Marvelettes, Jackson 5, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and up to the Lionel Ritchie years. It is fair to say though that although many of the best known songs of these artists were performed tonight, some worked better than others.
Motown has now become a generic name for all of the music tonight, but in reality a lot of the early songs were not on the Motown label at all, but from other Berry Gordy labels such as “Tamla” and “Gordy”. A few of the songs were actually from a time when the artist had left Motown too. Does this really matter though? No, we all still in the end call it the “Motown Sound”.
With such a huge back-catalogue of music to choose from it would be good for a little space to be made for a few other classics from time to time – R. Dean Taylor “There’s a Ghost in My House”, Jimmy Ruffin “What Becomes of The Broken Hearted”, Marvin Gaye “Abraham, Martin & John” and The Supremes “Love Child” are just a few that come immediately to mind.
For the most part this show was reaching all the right places with this audience but there are some areas that do need tightening up and one of them is choreography. If you are going to try and re-create the image and sounds of The Temptations, The Four Tops and Jackson 5 then you need that very precise, very sharp choreography that the original artists had, but sadly tonight that was all too often not there and one performer many times seemed to be working on his own timing and improvising on his own choreography.
For me, the whole Stevie Wonder routine needs re-worked as we are long past the time when fake dreadlocks and dark glasses were needed to portray him. We can all appreciate the genius of the man and his music without such cheap and stereotyped props. The same goes for the Jackson 5 routine; we have as audiences (I hope) outgrown the need for big afro wigs on stage, it is the music that we are celebrating together after all. This brings us into an even bigger question though. Have contemporary audiences outgrown the need for look-a-likes on musical tribute shows like this and reached the point where we just want to celebrate their music with talented performers adding their own unique input to these songs? As a company, Entertainers have no shortage of their own performing talent to do this.
To be fair to Entertainers they do put on a big show and taking a company of performers plus a seven piece band on tour is expensive. Add into this the costumes, the technical equipment and back-stage teams that a show like this requires and it is all impressive for a one night only show and the heavy touring schedule that these productions have.
The Magic of Motown is what it is – a show to simply entertain its audience and give them a good time, whether that be just listening to some of their favourite songs, re-living a little bit of their youth again, or just forgetting any troubles that they might have for a few hours. Entertainers as a company do what their name implies, they entertain, but along the way shows like this need to be allowed to evolve too.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This show is one of many musical tribute shows produced by Entertainers and the format has been a hugely successful one for the company with every show catering for a specific audience, although many were probably just out for a bit of fun tonight and wanting just what this show obviously provides - to be entertained.
The show format is simple, non-stop hit after hit by some very talented performers and covering the classic early Motown years of iconic performers like The Supremes, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Isley Brothers, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, The Marvelettes, Jackson 5, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and up to the Lionel Ritchie years. It is fair to say though that although many of the best known songs of these artists were performed tonight, some worked better than others.
Motown has now become a generic name for all of the music tonight, but in reality a lot of the early songs were not on the Motown label at all, but from other Berry Gordy labels such as “Tamla” and “Gordy”. A few of the songs were actually from a time when the artist had left Motown too. Does this really matter though? No, we all still in the end call it the “Motown Sound”.
With such a huge back-catalogue of music to choose from it would be good for a little space to be made for a few other classics from time to time – R. Dean Taylor “There’s a Ghost in My House”, Jimmy Ruffin “What Becomes of The Broken Hearted”, Marvin Gaye “Abraham, Martin & John” and The Supremes “Love Child” are just a few that come immediately to mind.
For the most part this show was reaching all the right places with this audience but there are some areas that do need tightening up and one of them is choreography. If you are going to try and re-create the image and sounds of The Temptations, The Four Tops and Jackson 5 then you need that very precise, very sharp choreography that the original artists had, but sadly tonight that was all too often not there and one performer many times seemed to be working on his own timing and improvising on his own choreography.
For me, the whole Stevie Wonder routine needs re-worked as we are long past the time when fake dreadlocks and dark glasses were needed to portray him. We can all appreciate the genius of the man and his music without such cheap and stereotyped props. The same goes for the Jackson 5 routine; we have as audiences (I hope) outgrown the need for big afro wigs on stage, it is the music that we are celebrating together after all. This brings us into an even bigger question though. Have contemporary audiences outgrown the need for look-a-likes on musical tribute shows like this and reached the point where we just want to celebrate their music with talented performers adding their own unique input to these songs? As a company, Entertainers have no shortage of their own performing talent to do this.
To be fair to Entertainers they do put on a big show and taking a company of performers plus a seven piece band on tour is expensive. Add into this the costumes, the technical equipment and back-stage teams that a show like this requires and it is all impressive for a one night only show and the heavy touring schedule that these productions have.
The Magic of Motown is what it is – a show to simply entertain its audience and give them a good time, whether that be just listening to some of their favourite songs, re-living a little bit of their youth again, or just forgetting any troubles that they might have for a few hours. Entertainers as a company do what their name implies, they entertain, but along the way shows like this need to be allowed to evolve too.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com