The amount of shows I’m going to right now is insane, in the space of a month I’m going to see FIVE shows, one every weekend! There are just too many shows, and not enough time! I love it, but I’ll also be glad for a break, and a weekend where I don’t have to do anything.
I almost didn’t buy tickets to Ain’t to Proud, because The Ogunquit Playhouse is officially as expensive as going to a show in NYC now. It’s insane, but Ogunquit is a rich people community, so it’s not surprising. But I really felt like this was a show that I would regret missing, and I was correct. Also it’s not often that Ogunquit puts on shows with this many POC in the cast, so I definitely wanted to put my money where my mouth was and support that. I think there are two white people in the entire cast, and that is a level of diversity I’ve never seen in an Ogunquit show. While going through the Playbill before the show, I noticed that SO MANY of the performers were making their Ogunquit Playhouse debuts. Literally ONE of the Black performers had worked there before, and every other POC performer was there for the first time. Having gone to shows there for the past three years, diversity is absolutely not their strong suit, both in their casts, and in the sort of shows they tend to put on. Ain’t to Proud seems to be doing really well, so I really hope this pushes them to diversify their shows and casts more!
So in spite of the price, I took my mother to last Sunday’s matinee. It didn’t disappoint one bit. I’ve always been a big fan of Motown music, so I knew that this show would be an absolute bop from beginning to end. We were in the third row so we had amazing seats to really take in all the performers. From the moment the curtain opened and the five guys who were playing the original Temptations came out, I was locked in. They were all triple threats: amazing singers, dancers, and actors. I particularly enjoyed the guy who played Otis Williams who doubled as the narrator of the story (Williams is the only living original Temptation left, so the story is all his point of view), he was so damn charming and smooth up on that stage. The kind of actor that really makes you feel like he’s looking at you and talking to you, even though you’re just one random person in a huge crowd.
Obviously I knew the show was going to be about The Temptations, but apart from knowing a lot of their music, I knew almost nothing about the group, so it was cool to learn the story of the band, while getting to groove to their wonderful music. It was very similar to Jersey Boys in terms of how the story of the band was told, and how the songs were all woven throughout the show.
One of my favorite moments was shortly after the show started. Otis was retelling the moment when he realized he wanted to do music for the rest of his life. They had members of the ensemble playing a band called The Cadillacs (who I had never heard of before but am now low-key fixated on), and they sang this song called Gloria that was SO damn beautiful. That was honestly the highlight song moment of the show for me, which is hilarious since it’s not even by The Temptations. What can I say, I really love doo-wop, and the singer in the ensemble who performed the lead vocals in that number sounded heavenly.
Apart from the five main Temptations, everybody in this show was freaking amazing. The guys in the ensemble were also understudies for every Temptation role, so literally everybody had a killer singing voice, and they were all great dancers and actors. I honestly don’t even know how the people who cast musicals decide on who to give the lead roles to when everybody is SO DAMN TALENTED. It’s seriously insane how many people can just sing, dance, and act so well.
There were also three ladies who played The Supremes, and a few other various characters. They were all amazing as well. One of them played The Temptations original manager who they fire, and she winds up belting out a song while she drives off the stage in a shiny new cadillac. She was incredible, and very funny. I loved how she kept calling him “Oh-TISS!” The woman who played Diana Ross was also amazing, she also played Otis’s wife, and she got to belt out a song when she finally decides to leave him and she was SO GOOD. She was a much better singer when she was singing with her own voice instead of trying to emulate Diana Ross. The third of the ladies was also wonderful, but unfortunately I got distracted by the fact that she had a bunch of tattoos that they attempted to cover up, but did so half-assedly. She had a particularly large tattoo on her right tricep, and at first I was like, “Oh no, what’s wrong with her arm? Did they try to cover up a bruise or something?” But then I realized it was tattoo cover up, but a few shades too light for her skin tone, and applied very unevenly because there were bits of tattoo peeking through in some areas. Curse my visual ass for being distracted by something like that. I’ll bet it wouldn’t even have been noticeable if we were a few rows further back from the stage.
The show struck an incredible balance between being funny, and touching, and entertaining. Especially considering how much tragedy and difficulty plagued the band during their decades they spent together. There’s some really heavy stuff with death, drugs, and abuse, and everything is dealt with tastefully, without pulling any punches, but there are enough light moments sprinkled throughout that the show still feels delightful and entertaining through all that. The pacing of the whole show is really well done.
The most dramatic part for me was when they talked about the racism they encountered when they performed shows down south. They were all on their tour bus when suddenly there are gun shots and people shouting the N word at them. Absolutely terrifying moment, even just seeing it 100% fake on a stage. They talked a lot about how they had to present themselves in a certain way to make their act palatable to white audiences, and I’m glad they didn’t pull punches with that. I’m sure it was worse in real life than it was shown on stage, but I’m glad they didn’t try to gloss it over.
During intermission I was looking through the Playbill, and I realized why the guy who was playing Paul Williams looked so familiar. He had been in the ensemble in Damn Yankees in DC! My mother had thought she recognized him from tv, but we had front row seats to the show in DC, so I’m not surprised that we both remembered his face. Paul has one of the more tragic stories, and he did a wonderful job with the role.
One weird thing that happened during the show, was shortly after intermission when the show had resumed, it suddenly stopped. Everything had seemed like it was going fine, but then suddenly a dude said over an intercom that all the actors needed to leave the stage, and that the audience should stay seated. After all the actors went into the wings, and it had been quiet for a few seconds, my mom turned to me and said, “Is this part of the show?” I said absolutely not, and the guy sitting next to her asked the same thing. I thought it was so funny that both of them were confused, when the show had clearly been stopped for some reason. After about maybe five minutes of an empty stage and the audience murmuring, wondering WTF was going on, the dude on the intercom said that the show would be resuming shortly. After a couple more minutes, the actors all came back out onto the stage, rewound back to the beginning of the scene they had been in the middle of, and started everything over. I thought maybe it was a medical emergency, or possibly some technical malfunction, but nobody ever explained what had happened. So weird, I’ve never been to a show where they just stopped out of the blue like that before! As soon as the show resumed though, I honestly completely forgot that there had even been a pause. It was just THAT good. I didn’t even remember about it until I went to write this recap.
Near the end of the show, there was a moment when everyone started applauding, and I think everyone thought it was the end of the show, so people started standing up, and I kept sitting in my seat because I realized, there’s no way this is actually the end. But the applause and standing were going on for so long that I felt awkward, so I stood up too! But then of course, the guy playing Otis started gesturing for people to sit their asses back down, and I was like, “Damnit! I knew it wasn’t actually at the end yet!” There was still a whole other number! After that the show was PROPERLY done, and people came out for their bows, so we all stood up again. I don’t know if I’ve ever been to a show where the cast got TWO standing ovations! Ha! I hope the cast at least enjoyed it.
There’s honestly not much more that I can say about this show that’s specific, because the whole thing was just amazing from beginning to end. The book was good, the music was great, the actors were incredible, it was a slam dunk. I loved it every bit as much as I loved Jersey Boys, and I would 100% go and see it again if tickets weren’t so danged expensive.
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