Originally Posted by
smark21
While in Chicago last Sunday I went to see the musical Marvelous Marvelettes at the Black Ensemble Theater on the North Side. It's a small venue; the theater group is somewhere between a civic/community theater and a professional group. There was a lot of talent on stage and in the band playing behind them, but the script for the show needed work. First act was OK as we switch back and forth from watching present day Katherine and Juanita at LAX after Gladys Horton's funeral reminiscing about the group to seeing the rise of the group from the talent show at Inkster High to closing Act One with Georgeanna Tillman collapsing onstage after The Marvelettes perform Beechwood. Second act rushes things along with girls dropping out and at times the story loses focus as we watch performances of What Becomes of the Broken Hearted by Jimmy Ruffin and Heat Wave by Martha and the Vandellas. The only rational reason I can think of why those songs were included was because the actors who played Ruffin and Reeves had bit parts as other characters and the company wanted to showcase their talents. But it stops the narrative momentum dead in its tracks. The show ends with the entire company performing a medley of Marvelettes songs. The show is a fine celebration of the Marvelettes music and it was a kick to hear such songs as Please Mr. Postman, Twistin' Postman, Young and in Love [[which was performed as the Inkster High talent show number--not accurate, but the song works thematically as we watch the girls go from young and in love to disillusioned adults as the story progresses), Too Many Fish, Beechwood, Strange I Know, Playboy, Hunter, Baby Must be A Magician, Don't Mess with Bill and Locking Up My Heart performed live. In addition the Chantals song Look in My Eyes is performed as their Motown audition number.
The actors cast as the Marvelettes don't really resemble the real Marvelettes, and the choreography didn't try to recreate any of their routines, which was fine, though I wished they had recreated the famous CFM Heels and pencil skirts dance number for Locking up My Heart from the Apollo as that was The Marvelettes at their best. Clothes and wigs weren't recreations either but they were fun suggestions of the styles The Marvelettes wore from their teen days to their more Sophisticated Soul look.
The story did touch on all the highlights [[and low lights) of the Marvelettes career. Berry Gordy was the villain of the story, mostly due to being more concerned about business and putting the girls' overall welfare on the back burner. The script does single out Gladys Horton for being the leader of the group and the one who held them together. Wanda was portrayed as a budding diva, happy to clash with Gladys when she disagreed with an edict from Gladys, and later getting a big ego as she took on more leads and started to drink and drug. The actress playing Wanda played it drunk and high for the performance of Magician which was staged as a rehearsal of the song before they recorded it and the actress was very funny doing the drunk and unsteady business while doing that song, got the audience laughing.
As a big Marvelette fan, I enjoyed the music, but already knew the facts presented and it was irritating that sometimes they got the time lines wrong or mixed up. But then I remember this show is directed at a general audience and the audience at my show were genuinely shock and dismayed to hear about the details of the contracts the girls signed when they joined about Motown; about Georgeanna Tillman leaving the group due to lupus and sickle cell and later dying of those conditions; the fake Marvelettes and how they took its toll on Gladys; and Gladys having a child with Cerebral Palsy.
I don't know if the show will be restaged elsewhere after it closes in Chicago next month, but if you're going to Chicago in the next couple of weeks, do go see the show. Script problems aside, it was a fun show to see, thanks to the music and performances.
P.S.: The program credited Lieber and Stoller as the writers of When You're Young and in Love. But as we know, the writer was Van McCoy.
