‘Ain’t Too Proud’ at Bass Hall shows The Temptations are more than great music
In a time when folks needed an escape from the world around them, The Temptations provided one. Amid civil unrest and war, songs such as “My Girl” and “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” sung in blissful harmony, were there to take us away, if even for a few moments.
Though the faces in the group have changed many times over more than six decades, society continues to find new ways to challenge us and they remain ready with a song.
Their story is being told this week at Bass Hall with “Ain’t Too Proud — The Life and Times of The Temptations.” The show, the latest in the Performing Arts Fort Worth Broadway at the Bass Series presented by PNC Bank, is running through Feb. 16.
The Tony Award-winning production, based on Otis Williams’ critically acclaimed biography, spent time on Broadway in 2019 and 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic and again in parts of 2021 and 2022.
The Temptations have had 27 members in their history, with founder Williams still around as the lone original. It is Williams’ consistent message that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts that has been the driving force behind what “Billboard” magazine named the greatest R&B group ever.
Williams was never the group’s lead singer, but he has carried the banner and always made sure the music remains first and foremost the main ingredient. After all, as his character — played magnificently by Rudy Foster — says in the show, “The only thing that really lives forever is the music.”
During their time the Temptations have had four “Billboard Hot 100” No. 1 singles and 14 R&B No. 1 singles. They were the first Motown act to win a Grammy Award (for their rare protest song “Cloud Nine” in 1969), winning four Grammy awards in all, with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.
The only thing better than listening to a Temptations song is seeing the great dance moves that go with one. As harmonious and in sync as they were vocally, their musical movements were equally silky smooth.
It’s all brought to the stage with brilliance in this production through the choreography of Sergio Trujillo, whose work for the show on Broadway won a Tony Award in 2019. As for the songs themselves, close your eyes and you’d swear the real Temptations were onstage serenading just to you.
But don’t close your eyes because you won’t want to miss a moment — and it’s not all Temptations. Their No. 1 Motown rivals, Diana Ross and the Supremes have some spotlight moments in the show with Jasmine Barboa as Ross bringing to life tunes such as “Baby Love” and “You Can’t Hurry Love.”
The show is more than great songs and dance moves, however. It reveals the history of the group, how they came to be, how they rose to fame and how they might have crumbled were it not for Williams and his determination to fulfill his calling.
Their journey from the streets of Detroit to international fame is one of struggling, courage and a consistency that sometimes defied the odds. Through it all, no one member has ever been greater than the group itself.
And while some of the smoothest voices ever to hold a microphone have called the group home, that fact has always resonated loud, as a few have found out, with the best example being lead singer David Ruffin. He was with the group during what is often called their peak years (1964-68), but was fired after purposely skipping out on a performance to attend a show featuring his new girlfriend.
Corey Mekell, playing the role on this night, does a fine job of bringing out both the incredible talent Ruffin possessed, along with the demons that kept him becoming all he might have been. Sadly, he died of a drug overdose at the age of 50 in 1991.
With Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks (Lowes Moore), a member from 1964-71, they released some of the greatest songs the R&B world has ever known. And it is this period on which the show places much of its focus, also known as the “Classic Five” lineup of Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin (Jameson Clanton), Paul Williams (Bryce Valle), Kendricks, and Ruffin.
With his eye for great talent, Motown legend Berry Gordy (Robert J. Valderas III on this night) signed the group and they began working with Smokey Robinson (Cedric Jamaal Greene) as a writer and producer. Robinson and Miracles bandmate Bobby Rogers co-wrote and produced “The Way You Do the Things You Do” in 1964 and it became their first top-20 hit.
Robinson wrote a number of the group’s songs, including “My Girl,” which reached No. 1 in 1965. His original plan was to perform it himself with the Miracles, but he felt it could be a monster hit for protegees, who he felt needed one, and he was right.
The scene where Otis Williams first meets Gordy in a men’s room is one of the show’s funniest. And though they would form a strong partnership for the ages, Gordy’s power was often evidenced, displayed in moments such as when a frustrated Williams was told he could not write songs for the group to record.
The Temptations’ music was as much an outlet for themselves as it was for the millions who listened. As Paul Williams, who had to leave the group after being diagnosed with sickle cell, said, “The music is the medicine” before later taking his own life.
Also, even while battling rheumatoid arthritis, Franklin insisted on continuing to perform and create music right up to the time of his death in 1995 at 52.
The group wasn’t, however, without their own protests, which were displayed in a few of their songs. In fact, while Edwin Starr’s version of “War” is much more famous, it was The Temptations who recorded it first, though Gordy never allowed it to be released as a single — a fact presented in the show, prompting his response of “Nobody said I was always right.”
But he was right most of the time, and discovering The Temptations is at the top of the list. Music fans throughout the world were grateful then and they remain thankful today.