Motown Marvels Revived in style

[jimmy]

Motown marvels revived in style
Mar 20 2008 by Phil Key, Liverpool Daily Post

Philip Key rediscovers some classic pop of the 60s and 70s

THE singers who performed the great songs of Tamla-Motown in the 1960s and 1970s are getting a bit long in the tooth these days.

But here they were, back on stage at the Liverpool Empire last night, young, eager and socking out the old songs again.

Of course this was not the originals but a facsimile of them as created by the hard-working cast of Dancing in the Streets, a show devoted to celebrating the Motown sound.

For once there was no paper-thin plot on which to hang the numbers, just a concert-like show with a compère to rev up the atmosphere and throw in some jokes and a wee bit of information about the performers.

The eight-piece band were on stage with a simple set of large-scale photographs of some of the original performers and the Hitsville Studio where the Motown sound was created. It was enough.

With a non-stop parade of hit songs and performers to do most justice, a powerful atmosphere was created to cause plenty of shouts, whistles and overhead handclaps.

The cast, with a regular supply of Lurex outfits and dodgy wigs, took on the personas of most of the Motown crew from The Supremes, The Four Tops and The Temptations to Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder.

As with such shows, some numbers worked better than others but for the most part the sheer energy of the performances took over, particularly the crazy, choreographed movements.

Wayne Anthony-Cole as the MC did a first rate job in getting the audience steamed up, his introductions to some performers almost heralding the Second Coming. With a touch of sly humour and some singing spots himself, he held it all together.

It was he who suggested the audience get up and dance in their seats – not that most needed encouraging – and by the end the entire population of the theatre was happily singing and dancing to some of the best pop music ever written.

philkey