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March 21, 2019

While honoring all the expected biomusical clichés, which include rolling out its subjects’ greatest hits in brisk and sometimes too fragmented succession, this production refreshingly emphasizes the improbable triumph of rough, combustible parts assembled into glistening smoothness.

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Entertainment Weekly
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Leah
Greenblat

March 21, 2019

What makes Ain’t Too Proud memorable is the sheer overwhelming talent of the cast. Even if no one character has enough time or space in the script to fill in the contours of a full personality beyond a few fast details — baritone Otis Williams liked his suits electric blue; Falsetto king Eddie Kendricks got the nickname Corn because he… loved cornbread! — they can still bring every sweet harmony and cross-step. As the original five Temptations, Derrick Baskin (Otis Williams), James Harkness (Paul Williams), Jawan M. Jackson (Melvin Franklin), Jeremy Pope (Eddie Kendricks) and Ephraim Sykes (David Ruffin) move gracefully through a functional book by Dominique Morrisseau, covering all the bases of the group’s innumerable ups and downs.

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March 21, 2019

When the Supremes appear a few times to sing with the Temps, the show suddenly gets a jolt of true star power, thanks to Candice Marie Woods’ electrifying performance as Diana Ross. But these brief moments also remind you of the Supremes-inspired, classic musical “Dreamgirls” — and the kind of rich and complex storytelling that’s missing from this show.

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March 21, 2019

Opening tonight, Ain’t Too Proud mostly accomplishes what so many of the lesser examples of this genre haven’t – a fine cast performs beloved songs, performs them well enough to conjure and honor the people they’re playing and the songs they’re singing, and adds enough Broadway dazzle to give the production an edge – a slight edge, but an edge – over the in-name-only descendant bands you might catch playing at your local amphitheater this summer.

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March 21, 2019

Merely plowing through all this locks Ain’t Too Proud into VH1: Behind the Music territory, but at least it’s done with intelligence and taste. If the show often plays like a hits compilation with commentary, the relative paucity of extended dramatic scenes is overshadowed at every step by the sheer exhilaration of the musical performances. And a narrative shape does gradually emerge; also, to a lesser extent, a social context for the key decades of the 1960s and ’70s.

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