The story of one of the most iconic record labels of all time, as well as some of the legendary talent it helped to launch, is coming to the Academy of Music, as “Motown the Musical” takes audiences on a hits-laden trip, through Jan. 18.
The production is the American-dream story of Motown founder Berry Gordy as he starts out as a featherweight boxer and becomes a highly successful music mogul, launching the careers of Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and many more.
Out actor Jesse Nager, who plays singing star and songwriter Robinson, has seen a lot of the music business and Broadway in his career, having performed with artists like Mariah Carey, Patti LaBelle and Debbie Gibson, as well as in productions like “Xanadu” and “Mamma Mia.”
He said while both gigs have their challenges, Broadway presents different challenges than backing up famous singers and pop stars.
“Broadway is a lot more intense,” he said. “You are playing a character and it is a whole evening of acting. With concerts, you pop in, do your thing and get out. Singing back up for someone in concert is different than playing the lead because I’m performing behind them. Although, when you are singing at Madison Square Garden, it’s pretty remarkable. I was with the musical in New York for two years but touring is a lot more fun. We get to interact with the personalities of the cities. It’s more fun and different in every city we go.”
Nager originally played Eddie Kendricks of The Temptations in “Motown” before getting the role of Smokey Robinson. Even though Robinson is a bigger role in the show, Nager doesn’t spend as much time in the spotlight now.
“I actually spend less time on stage now than when I was in The Temptations because when I was in The Temptations I was also in the ensemble cast,” he explained.
“Motown the Musical” obviously focuses on the story and the music of superstars like Ross, The Supremes, Gaye and The Jackson 5. But Nager said the show also includes the stories of the people behind the scenes who wrote the hits and helped groom the label artists into world-class performers.
“This show is based on the book Berry Gordy wrote and there is a lot of quick mentions of people like The Funk Brothers [the session musicians that performed on most of the Motown recordings],” Nager said. “When Motown was created, he had a charm school that he would put the ladies through so they knew how to act in public. He ran that with Maxine Powell. And there was a guy named Cholly Atkins, who taught everybody how to dance. And then there was Maurice King, who taught everybody how to sing better. Everyone gets a little mention and it’s fun to learn about the workings and the ins and outs of Motown and the people who helped him do it. That’s the thing about Motown: The songwriters had an equal amount of fame. They were just churning out these hits. Writers like Holland-Dozier-Holland were writing for The Supremes and The Temptations. Norman Whitefield wrote all these great songs for The Temptations. It’s really cool. You get to see all the writers as well as all the artists in the show.”
Nager added that people don’t have to be familiar with the history of Motwn or its artists to enjoy the show because the label’s music is so woven into the public consciousness, whether people know it or not.
“People will be surprised at how many of these songs that they know,” he said. “Motown music is really ingrained in the fabric of American history, whether it’s in commercials or movie soundtracks. This music is everywhere. You can walk down the street or into a restaurant and they are playing a Motown station. Everybody knows these songs. But the music industry was different back then, as far as young singers with dreams trying to make it. That’s always going to be universal and timeless.”
Nager added that the majority of the music in the show is performed live by the actors and the show’s backing band.
“We travel with four band members and in each city we pick up an orchestra,” he said. “All the vocals are performed live. The interesting thing about how they designed this show is there are some moments where they put on a record but those aren’t major moments in the show.”
We had to ask how “Motown the Musical” compares to “Dreamgirls,” the wildly popular and long-running musical that tells the story of the rise of a Motown-like label and the popular Supremes-like girl group it helped to make superstars.
Nager said there is a big difference between the two productions.
“‘Motown’ is a true story and ‘Dreamgirls’ is fiction. There are so many sides to how Motown was built and created. This is a true story. This is Berry Gordy’s point of view of what actually happened. So right there it has a little more weight than ‘Dreamgirls.’ You see a lot more sides of the story. Berry Gordy was very open about not portraying himself as a nice and easy guy the whole show. He definitely has flaws and he talks about them. He talks about artists getting mad at him. It’s interesting to hear his point of view in this show.”
We also had to ask about the wild retro fashions the actors get to wear in the show, which Nager said give him a great sense of appreciation of the lengths artists of that era had to go to in order to put on a spectacular show.
“It’s a perk but sometime it feels very strange,” he said about the show’s wardrobe. “The retro costumes, when you look back at some of the things that Motown artists wore in their performances, it was just giant hair and giant shoulder pads. Just large, over-the-top costumes.”
Nager also said he hopes that artists seeing the show will be inspired by the stories and the talent of the performers it portrays, and realize how much work and perserverence was needed to make it in the industry at that time.
“We’re in a culture now of instant stardom,” he said. “Back then, they really had to work for it. The show portrays The Supremes and it really shows them fighting and clawing to get where they got. I hope that will inspire young artists to not just try to become YouTube-famous or ‘American Idol’-famous, but to really work and study and hone their craft as performers.”
“Motown the Musical” runs through Jan. 18 at Kimmel’s Academy of Music, 240 S. Broad St. For more information or tickets, call 215-790-5847.