The fab five … (left to right) Brandon Lee Sears, Samuel Edwards, Eshan Gopal, Simon Ray Harvey and Simeon Montague as the Jackson 5 in Motown the Musical at Shaftesbury theatre, London. Photograph: Alastair MuirMichael Billington

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5 Save for laterGiven that Berry Gordy has written, co-produced and is the lead character in this imported American musical, it is clear that the ego has landed. But, eager as I am as the next person to learn more about the Motown mogul, I was disappointed at how little I discovered. The appeal of this all-too-typical modern musical lies in the capacity of the 50 numbers, many of them severely truncated, to unlock the memories of the baby-boomer generation.

The musical’s book, based on Berry Gordy’s own memoirs, is a shaky vehicle largely designed to facilitate the songs. It shows Gordy in 1983 sitting in his Californian pad moodily refusing to attend a 25th-birthday tribute to his great creation: the Motown pop empire which began modestly in a Detroit house famously dubbed “Hitsville, USA”. While Gordy wanly surveys his future, his past comes to spasmodic life. We learn of his early failures as a boxer, much influenced by Joe Louis, and as a salesman and car-worker.

We also hear of his skill as a songwriter and his vision in founding a record label that would soon attract a huge array of talent including Smokey Robinson, the Temptations, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye and the Jackson 5.

It’s a fascinating rags-to-riches story but this version leaves all the key questions unanswered. Even with this relentless exposure, Gordy himself remains something of a mystery. Although his relationship with Diana Ross is touched on, you learn little of his private life. It is also never made clear quite why the whole Motown industry shifted its base from Detroit to Los Angeles and what the artistic consequences were. And even though Motown sanctioned the protest songs of Marvin Gaye, you are never sure how much Gordy was motivated by progressive politics or commercial considerations.


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What’s going on? … Cedric Neal, far right, shows Berry Gordy to be a skilful entrepreneur without ever quite explaining what drives him on. Photograph: Alastair Muir

In the early 80s as his artists melt away, Gordy acknowledges that “independents like us are a thing of the past”. But it struck me that Motown itself became part of the corporate culture by which its artists were greedily devoured.

The music, of course, is what people will go for and it is put across with great pizzazz with the help of a fine pit band under the direction of Gareth Weedon. But the cues for song are sometimes clangorous, as in “we’re going to make some beautiful music”, or dramatically dubious as when Ross, after a night with Gordy, announces “I hear a symphony.” I couldn’t help comparing the show with the much superior Memphis: the Musical, recently at the same theatre, which showed how a pivotal moment in pop history helped to shift racial attitudes.