EAST LANSING, Mich.–If you were at an actual jukebox, you’d be flipping quarters faster than the music could play in order to hear all the hits that are packed into Motown: the Musical. In two hours and 40 minutes at East Lansing’s Wharton Center, this jukebox musical presents 60 of Motown’s hit songs and two written just for this musical.

It’s an evening chock-full of music with a story being told along the way—the story of the music itself and the record company that crossed barriers to get the music of African Americans onto the pop charts and into the consciousness of the world. It’s the story of the man behind that record company—Berry Gordy.

Every song helps to tell the story and while Gordy was more of a songwriter and record producer, in this musical, he sings as well. And with the vocal chops of Chester Gregory, the actor who plays Gordy, he sings quite well, easily competing with the stars that pass through his doors, stars such as Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.

Gregory is onstage nearly non-stop in this story written by Gordy himself. Gregory plays a man with a dream and he is authentic in the execution of that dream. He’s driven, creative, and filled with music. We watch Gordy recruit talent, make music, fall in love and get rejected by those he helped build up. In all these roles, Gregory excels at driving the plot and showing a range of emotion.

Matching him in emotional intensity is Allison Semmes, who co-stars with him as Diana Ross. She starts out as young and innocent and develops into a sophisticated woman who is a superstar and mistress of her own fate. Semmes has a beautiful voice and handles well the torch songs and other hits that made Diana Ross the star that she was. She sparkles as part of a trio, but really knocks ‘em dead when she has her solo numbers.

Jesse Nager’s Smokey Robinson always seems more the comic relief sidekick than the co-executive of Motown records who stuck with Gordy from beginning to end. Nager has excellent comic timing and invites the audience to see the lighter side of Gordy. He pitches his voice high and goes for that trademark Smokey sound when he speaks and when he sings.

Child actor Leon Outlaw, Jr. is impressive with the breadth of his acting. He plays the young Berry Gordy, the young Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, often with large singing and dancing roles to go with it. He’s got some of Michael Jackson’s trademark moves down and lights up the stage with his dancing.

The actors who are really impressive in this musical, however, are the ensemble members. They’re in constant motion, changing costumes, changing roles, changing personalities. Each one plays a handful of roles from band members such as The Four Tops, the Temptations, The Marvelettes, Jackson 5, the Commodores to stars like Martha Reeves and Mary Wells to collections of characters like studio heads, police officers, landladies and Gordy family members. They’re constantly changing parts, and it is impossible to keep up with who is playing who…they make the cast seem enormous.

The show is high-energy all night and frequently had audience members applauding, clapping, singing along and even standing up and dancing along. There are triumphs and tragedies, high points and lows, successes and failures. Each, though, are accompanied with music that keeps everything moving and the sound of Motown constantly ringing in the ears of the audience.

Directed by Charles Randolph-White, Motown: the Musical is a trip down memory lane and a history of an important segment of American music. And in telling the history of the music, it also highlights what our country was going through at the time including the racial tensions and segregation.

Berry Gordy constantly insisted he didn’t create “race” music or make “black” movies. He made music and movies that were for all people even when the artists were black. It’s a fight that continues to resonate in a country where race still divides. His story offers hope that we can make progress and create something wonderful along the way.

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