A fair, balanced review...
Sat it last night. Short answer on Motown was that I came very close to loving it, even at 2:50 with 65 songs! [[At least last night, the show started at 8pm SHARP.)
The book, as I expected, would have its shortcomings, especially in the first half which packed so much in. Act Two was much smoother. But the casting, the choreography, the design elements – there was soooo much talent [[and money, oh the money) on that stage, I ended up really, really liking it.
One of my favorite weirdly-written lines was when Berry Gordy said about the Jackson Five before a blackout, “They’re about to become superstars…I hope they can handle it.” If my Playbill was in my hands, I would have thrown it in the air in anger. There’s foreshadowing, and then there’s foreshadowing.
But the book scenes are relatively short, and then a new number starts and you immediately forget them - so if you take away the book’s problems, then I loved it.
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