The Supremes wouldn’t be harmonizing “Baby love, my baby love”; the Temptations wouldn’t be crooning “I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day”; and the Jackson 5 wouldn’t be singing “ABC, easy as one, two, three,” if it weren’t for Berry Gordy Jr., founder of the record label Motown.
Music mogul Gordy had a knack for finding talent; he signed those groups and other acts such as Marvin Gaye, the Four Tops, Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Commodores, Martha and the Vandellas and Stevie Wonder. The life and legacy of these artists live on in Motown: The Musical.
Based on Gordy’s 1994 autobiography To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown, the jukebox musical has received rave reviews since it premiered on Broadway in 2013.
Taking audiences back to the days when Motown was in its prime, Motown: The Musical features more than 40 classic hits, including “What’s Going On,” “Dancing in the Street,” “Baby I Need Your Loving,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand),”“Stop! In the Name of Love,” “I’ll Be There” and “I Want You Back.”
The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, 7:30 p.m. Jan. 17-20, 2 & 7:30 Jan. 21-22, starting at $29 plus tax and fee. 702.749.2000
