Motown the Musical is magical.

It brings back the old tunes of Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, The Jackson Five and many of the other talented Motown artists, all the while telling the story of how Motown came about with Berry Gordy founding it.

Motown the Musical mainly focuses on Berry Gordy’s struggle with keeping Motown alive and how Diana Ross rose to fame from performing with the Supremes to becoming one of the most popular singers in musical history.

Whilst it was mostly successful in presenting the story of Motown, at times viewers agree that some scenes in the non-musical areas were unnecessary and made it slightly boring.

“I loved it, it’s my kind of music but sometimes the story felt a bit boring and sometimes dragged on longer than needed, but I’d still recommend it,” One of the audience members said.

All the actors, actresses and singers portraying the various Motown artists were extremely talented and fantastic in singing similar to groups such as ‘The Contours’ with ‘Do You Love Me?” and ‘My Girl’ by ‘The Temptations’.  The singer, acting as Diana Ross – Lucy St Louis – had a beautiful voice; however to me it didn’t sound that much like the real Diana Ross. I’m unsure whether this was intentional but I personally feel that although St Louis had a lovely voice it was too different for her to resemble Diana Ross and I would’ve preferred the show if the actress sounded more like her.

The same audience member stated that, “the actress playing Diana Ross had a nasally singing voice and she was good but maybe not for this role.”

I also found that although most of the songs were recognisable, the show could’ve included more well-known songs as opposed to ones that aren’t as popular and perhaps the stage could’ve been brought to life more with these songs. Songs like Marvin Gaye’s ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine,’ weren’t fully sung either and only a short snippet was performed. If the whole song was sung for hits like these, I think maybe the audience would find it easier to get into it and it would help the show flow more.

Motown the Musical is definitely worth the watch still and others may disagree and find they enjoyed the show exactly how it was. If you remember these tunes and don’t mind how they’re performed then Motown the Musical is great for bringing back these old classics.

Miral Pankhania, Rosebery School