The story of R&B legends The Temptations is a Motown story, in other words a Detroit story. And who better to tell it than Dominique Morisseau, who has explored life in her native Detroit in plays such as “Detroit ’67,” “Skeleton Crew” and “Paradise Blue”?
With a book by Morisseau, The Temptations musical “Ain’t Too Proud” premiered in 2017 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Its 2019 Broadway production was nominated for 11 Tony Awards and won one for Sergio Trujillo’s choreography. It was Morisseau’s first musical and became her Broadway debut.
Now the musical finally makes its way back to the Bay Area as BroadwaySF brings its U.S. tour to the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco. It opens just three days after the Alanis Morissette musical “Jagged Little Pill” exits the space.
“The Temptations were my parents’ favorite group growing up,” Morisseau says. “I grew up on their music, and my city grew up on their music, and my city birthed their sound. Detroit has a strong presence in the musical itself, and I just understand the DNA. I know what it was like for them as young people in Detroit. Everybody had parents or aunties or somebody who auditioned for Motown, if they were a Boomer. It’s one of our big industries, in conjunction with the auto industry. It came from a factory town, so it took factory principles and put it into making records.”
A relatively small percentage of Berkeley Rep’s shows are musicals, but several that have played there have gone on to Broadway, including the now-ubiquitous Green Day rock opera “American Idiot,” “Passing Strange” (which Berkeley’s Shotgun Players produced recently), “Amélie” (playing this month at Point Richmond’s Masquers Playhouse) and most recently “Paradise Square.”
“Ain’t Too Proud” is told largely from the point of view of surviving founding Temptations member Otis Williams, based on his book “The Temptations” as well as conversations with him.
Telling the story of a living artist is “nerve-wracking, and it makes you very vulnerable and fragile,” Morisseau says. “You hope that you’re going to serve them well and make them proud of the work that they’re going to be amplifying and participating in. You hope that they’ll want to participate in it, based on how much integrity you brought to their story. And that integrity is not without hard truth. Otis is an amazing person and a generous human being and artist, and I appreciated the grace that he offered for me to be able to write his story freely.”
The version of “Ain’t Too Proud” coming to San Francisco isn’t exactly the one seen at Berkeley Rep, as it was refined on the way to Broadway.
“The story pops more when you get rid of all the extra and just go straight for the things that matter, and I think that’s what we figured out on the journey,” Morisseau says.
Bay Area audiences have been fortunate enough to see a lot of Morisseau’s work lately. Marin Theatre Company and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley co-produced “Skeleton Crew” in 2018. The Pear Theater in Mountain View did her “Sunset Baby” earlier this year, and Theatre Rhinoceros and Cal State East Bay presented “Blood at the Root” online in 2020. Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre produced “Detroit ’67” in 2018 and will be doing “Paradise Blue” in January.
Next August, American Conservatory Theater will premiere Morisseau’s second-ever musical, “Soul Train,” based on the popular 1970s TV dance party show of the same name.
“The Bay just feels right for what I’m about as an artist,” Morisseau says. “It feels like the mindset of the people that come to see theater there, they are ready for the kind of work that I want to be making and the kind of stories I want to be telling.”
Morisseau recently attended the long-delayed Detroit premiere of “Ain’t Too Proud,” which she describes as “electric.” “It was just as exciting as opening night when it was on Broadway,” she adds.
As for the show’s return to the Bay Area, “It feels very full circle, and it feels right,” she says. “It was birthed there in a way, and it’s nice to be able to have it return there in its more mature state. Like, here is your child delivered back to you, older and better.”
Contact Sam Hurwitt at shurwitt@gmail.com, and follow him at Twitter.com/shurwitt.
‘AIN’T TOO PROUD’
Book by Dominique Morisseau, music by the Temptations, presented by BroadwaySF
When: Nov. 9-Dec. 4
Where: Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Taylor St., San Francisco
Tickets: $56-$256 (subject to change); www.broadwaysf.com
Source: www.mercurynews.com