Common Thread

After starting out 2024 strong with the national tour of On Your Feet!, I returned to the Durham Performing Arts Center to see another jukebox biopic musical. Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations made waves when it debuted on Broadway in 2019, gaining twelve Tony Award nominations. After pandemic delays, the national US tour kicked off at DPAC on December 7, 2021. It’s now back again, bringing a touching story of perseverance and sacrifice alongside great music and smooth dance moves.

If you know anything about music, then you definitely know about The Temptations, who are considered one of the most successful groups of all time. They helped define Motown sound through their popular songs throughout the 1960s and 1970s. While you probably can sing the lyrics to at least a few of their songs, it’s likely that you know less about the group’s personal struggles, which Ain’t Too Proud illuminates.

The musical is narrated by Otis Williams, the last surviving founding member of the group, on whose memoir Dominique Morisseau based this adaptation. He’s the perfect person to lead us through their story, as he put the group together in the 1960s and still performs in it today, albeit with a much different lineup.

Otis leads us to the streets of Detroit, where many young Southern Black men ended up, as jobs in the auto factories lured people to Michigan (not to mention the difficulties of living in the Jim Crow South). But Detroit has its own problems and Otis turns to singing as a way to keep out of trouble. He recruits Al Bryant, Melvin Franklin, Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, and eventually David Ruffins to the group.

The musical takes us through the group’s early years performing under different names before they settled on the name, The Temptations, and record producer Berry Gordy took them on. However, despite their rise to fame, the group has increasing issues in their personal lives, from their tumultuous love lives to fighting amongst themselves to figuring out how to respond to the political events of the 1960s and 1970s.

Ain’t Too Proud does an excellent job of balancing humor and upbeat musical numbers with more serious considerations of drug abuse, domestic violence, and racism. It admirably presents each number of the group as complex human beings, with faults and strengths, muddling through what it meant to be a famous Black man in this time period. I wish it took a somewhat stronger stance on David Ruffin’s abuse of fellow Motown singer Tammi Terrell and how it may have contributed to her early death at the age of 24 years old from a brain tumor.

The show depends on the talent of its cast, requiring them to recreate songs that are well-known and beloved. Thankfully, they found men with incredible voices to bring the story to life. Elijah Ahmad Lewis is thrilling to watch as David Ruffin, bringing a star quality to the role that helps us understand why the public and press clambered for him above the others.

E. Clayton plays Paul Williams and his slick, precise handling of Sergio Trujillo’s choreography makes him the standout of every dance number. Harrell Holmes Jr.’s portrayal of Melvin Franklin, called “Blue” by the group, is subtler but equally heartfelt.

Devin Price and Derek Adams both have humorous turns as Al Bryant and Smokey Robinson, respectively. But it’s Michael Andreaus who seems to be the heart of the cast, mirroring the character he plays, Otis Williams. While his role isn’t the showiest, his solid performance anchors the whole show.

With a great cast, impressive choreography, and songs like “My Girl” and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” Ain’t Too Proud doesn’t need much else. Robert Brill’s minimalist stage design perfectly complements everything, without feeling like it’s pulling attention from the actors. The use of projections, particularly in creating the different marquis, is effective and tasteful. Paul Tazewell’s costumes also help ground us in different eras as the show flows through the lives of these men.

At the beginning of the show, Otis tells the audience, “There’s no progress without sacrifice.” Ain’t Too Proud certainly shows how The Temptations had to make sacrifices, go against terrible odds, and deal with seemingly one hardship after another to share their art with the world. Whether you know their story already or not, Ain’t Too Proud is an engaging and moving show.

You can find tickets and more information about the show on DPAC’s website. 

Photo Credit: Emilio Madrid