Like Motown? This one’s for you

At the Denver Center, touring Broadway production of ‘Ain’t Too Proud’ hits on most all cylinders

While I’ve known plenty of songs by The Temptations, this is one of those Motown singing groups that I knew little else about. That was cured recently with the Denver Center opening of Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations. The touring Broadway production is in town through Nov. 6, and it’s both a toe-tapping, hand-clapping celebration of one of the best R&B groups and a pretty thorough exploration of the band’s history over the decades.

With an exceptional cast backed by an excellent orchestra, Ain’t Too Proud runs through many of the familiar songs: “My Girl”’ “Just My Imagination,” “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” “Shout” and “The Way You Do the Things You Do” — among plenty of others. We even get to hear from some of the girl bands that were contemporaries of The Temptations, like “You Can’t Hurry Love” and “Come See About Me” by The Supremes.

And while there are over 30 songs covered during the show, it comes across as more than a jukebox musical. Part of that is due to the extraordinarily tumultuous history of the group’s personnel and the times they lived through. It’s all here: infidelity, absentee dads, alcoholism, drug addiction, racism, runaway egos, greedy managers and enough intra-group spats to fill a reality TV season.

And while there were ultimately 25 different Temptations over the years, it’s the original lineup that forms the core of the story. Just out of juvie in 1960 Detroit, Otis Williams (Marcus Paul James) gathers four other singers to create the first iteration of the group called The Elgins. With a few that didn’t make it at first, the lineup alongside Otis ends up as Paul Williams (James T. Lane), Melvin Franklin (Harrell Holmes Jr.), Eddie Kendricks (Jalen Harris) and David Ruffin (Elijah Ahmad Lewis). They soon find a manager and a better name and start racking up hits.

The problems follow soon thereafter, with Ruffin leading the way with a supercharged ego resulting from being the lead voice on some of the bigger hits. As the de-facto leader, it’s up to Otis to try to keep things together with the group at the same time he’s dealing with his young and ultimately failed marriage and resulting son.

But the music keeps going, and alongside the beautiful harmonies the young men were able to achieve, they also became known for their sweet moves. Urged on by Paul, they were compelled to create a new set for just about every song and it became one of their signatures.

The casting on Ain’t Too Proud is outstanding, with the original five and all of the featured subsequent members possessing voices the size of Michigan. The female singers like Diana Ross (Amber Mariah Talley) and Tammi Terrell (Shayla Brielle G.) are just as good, making for a grand night of high-powered singing to fill up the cavernous Buell.

The scenic design is fairly minimal with pieces zooming in and out on wires as needed. There’s a lot of interesting work done with backdrops flying in diagonally to create quick scene changes, but the projections that are non-stop throughout the performance go from cool to tedious before too long. How often do we need to see the names of cities flashed in huge letters to convey all the travel they did?

That aside, it’s a highly enjoyable show with a lot of great music but with a story that never lets us forget there are real people with complicated lives behind it all.