Just weeks after “Motown, The Musical” began its return engagement on Broadway, the show’s producers announced that it would be closing on July 31, a serious foreshortening of its intended 18-week run. In a statement, they noted that the musical had fully recouped its investment during its initial run on Broadway, which started in March 2013 and ended in January 2015, just before the national tour began. “We are delighted that this amazing company of actors and musicians has been able to bring the production full circle to Broadway . . . for the final stop on the tour.”What no one talked about was why a show with such rich source material became something of an also-ran. Broadway is full of missed opportunities, and despite its initial profitable run, “Motown” looms as one of the biggest. In the realm of “jukebox” musicals, it is king, drawing from a plethora of baby-boomer smash hits created by such legendary groups as the Supremes, Temptations, the Jackson Five, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Throw in Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, and the potential is limitless. Acting as Svengali for those chart-climbing artists was Berry Gordy, the hard-driving founder and producer of Motown whose story the musical purports to tell.The problem is that Gordy, who co-produced the musical, insisted on writing the book. The result amounted to little more than hagiography and a skeletal framework around which to weave more than 50 songs. “The ego has landed,” is how British critic Michael Billington of the Guardian described “Motown” when it opened in London last March. The critical consensus in London was similar to the mixed-to-negative reviews that greeted the musical’s Broadway debut. Indeed, the serious panning of the book by New York critics moved Gordy to apologize to the cast for having failed them in thinking that he, a neophyte writer at 84, could pull off one of the most difficult theatrical challenges. It’s a feat that has stymied many who have attempted it solo. A recent example is Woody Allen, whose insistence on penning the book for the 2014 musical stage adaptation of his comedy hit “Bullets Over Broadway” resulted in another lost opportunity. What made that Broadway flop even more heartbreaking was the fact that Allen had his choice of seasoned co-writers. These included his frequent collaborator Marshall Brickman (“Annie Hall”), who co-wrote the long-running “Jersey Boys,” and Douglas McGrath, who worked with Allen on the film version of “Bullets” and created the book for the smash hit Carole King musical, “Beautiful.”One could speculate whether those opting to go it alone are motivated by greed, a desire for total control, or a sincere belief that only they can do full justice to the material. When it was announced that “Motown” would return to Broadway in a “streamlined” incarnation following its national tour, the hope was that a veteran writer would have burnished the book, enabling the production, ably directed by Charles Randolph-Wright and choreographed by Patricia Wilcox and Warren Adams, to shine more brightly. Critics hailed the new leads, including Chester Gregory, as Gordy, and Allison Semmes, as Diana Ross. But the momentum that had propelled “Motown” in its first incarnation was long gone, resulting in an aborted run for a show that should have continued to employ its talented cast through at least November, if not for years to come.
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