By Constance Garcia-Barrio
FROM LEFT: Harrell Holmes Jr., Jalen Harris, Elijah Ahmad Lewis, E. Clayton Cornelious, and Michael Andreaus from the National Touring Company of Ain’t Too Proud.
Photo: ©2023 Emilio Madrid
“Ain’t Too Proud to Beg: The Life and Times of the Temptations,” a Broadway show that opened January 3 at the Academy of Music, blasts out of the gate and skyrockets. The musical, based on “Temptations,” a book by former group leader Otis Williams, spotlights turning points for the “tall, tan, terrific” quintet whose songs topped the charts for years.
The Temptations’ original singers included Otis Williams, Paul Williams, Melvin Franklin, Eddie Kendricks, and David Ruffin. Otis Williams, (Michael Andreaus), who founded the group and held it together through contentious times, narrates the story. He sets the stage for honesty when he speaks of “The Way You Do The Things You Do,” the Temptations’ first top-20 song:
“You got a smile so bright
You know you could’ve been a candle
I’m holding you so tight
You know you could’ve been a handle”
“The lyrics ain’t exactly by Langston Hughes,” Williams says.
That tone of salty truths flavors the whole show. One group member says of David Ruffin, who’d begun using drugs, that “his eyes looked like two cherries in a glass of milk.”
Neither the book nor the musical seems to prettify Williams’ life. An early scene shows him in a juvenile jail in Detroit — the city where the Temptations got their start — for robbing a younger child. Six months of incarceration made him decide to never again risk his freedom and to devote himself to singing.
Wry humor stands out in the scene where Williams meets Motown mogul Berry Gordy. The encounter happened in the men’s room of a club where the group was singing. That set features four washbowls and four urinals.
The show has a whole firmament of sparkling actors. That said, Jalen Harris as Eddie Kendricks wrings every ounce of emotion from his scenes.
If one wanted to nitpick, one would wish a little more executive oomph and temper in Jeremy Kelsey’s Berry Gordy.
A lean script adds momentum to the story. Some sarcasm and a few “mother f**rs” spice the dialogue, but the language sounds authentic, and the actors’ have pitch-perfect delivery.
Besides excellent acting, the cast offers superb singing. Like the five original Temptations, these performers present harmonies as rich as cream. At one point, Jalen Harris sustains a falsetto so long that it threatens to crack the chandelier. A full orchestra accompanies the singing.
In many cases, songs deepen a scene’s emotion. For example, “I can’t believe my ears/ Are you really telling me goodbye?” is sung by a group member as a weary woman is about to walk out of the relationship.
The dazzling choreography leaves one wondering how the cast manages to sing one moment and in the next do leaps and splits. It’s as if the performers took the original Temptations’ classic moves and poured on hot sauce. The moves are more intricate, more athletic. Sometimes, the dancers stepped and clapped at the same time, adding a rhythmic element.
One scene hinted at the group’s connection with Philadelphia. The Temptations let David Ruffin go due to his tardiness, missed performances, and discontent. However, after he left the group, he sometimes came to their shows, hopped up and stage and began to sing with them.
One venue where Ruffin did so, was at the old Valley Forge Music Fair. In another scene, Williams explains how Ruffin died. The former Temptation went to a Philly crack house in a limousine one night. Around 3 a.m. the next morning, a limo left him, unconscious, at the door of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Ruffin died in the hospital due to an overdose, Williams says.
On a lighter note, the Temptations took part in the famous contests between popular groups at Broad Street’s Uptown Theatre. The Temptations dueled with Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions on one occasion, and with Gladys Knight and the Pips on another.
Otis Williams also writes about falling in love with Patti LaBelle. The romance couldn’t survive the frequent tours that kept the singers apart.
“Ain’t Too Proud” capsulizes the events of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and the sets show those times vividly. Ingenious projections feature buildings burning during inner city riots of the ‘60s, the face of Martin Luther King, combat scenes from the war in Vietnam, shouting white fans when the Temptations achieve crossover success, and more. Some projections give the audience the sensation of actual movement.
The price of success stands at the heart of the Temptations’ story. Early in the show, group members promise to be loyal to each other. However, once they began getting top billing at venues like New York’s Copacabana night club, their unity started to fray.
“Seems like the bigger we got, the more problems we had,” Williams said.
“Ain’t Too Proud” points out that Williams and other Temptations sometimes sacrificed family life to keep the hits coming. In one scene, Williams asks his son to play catch with him. The son, now grown to young manhood, says that the time for playing catch is long gone.
The flip side of the question is how failure, or not going for the big time, would have affected the group.
In a scene near the end of the show, Eddie Kendricks, dying of lung cancer, sits in a wheelchair and talks with Williams. Kendricks says that the struggles and missteps were worth it.
The more than two dozen Temptations hits plus a few number-one songs by other artists, like Edwin Starr’s blockbuster, “War,” will let some of us step back in time, while it provides younger Philadelphians with spectacular entertainment.
“Ain’t Too Proud” runs through January 21, 2024, at the Academy of Music. Visit: https://www.kimmelculturalcampus.org/events-and-tickets/2023-24/broadway/aint-too-proud/.
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