Berkeley Rep’s Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, written by Dominique Morriseau and directed by Des McAnuff, is the kind of play that will break your heart and make you want to sing along at the same time. It follows the long, storied, and achingly human career of the incredibly successful five-man group, narrated by Otis Scott, the one Temptation that stayed through to the end. At a sprawling three-hour run, the play verges on exhausting, but more than makes up for it with uniformly fantastic music and choreography.
While the extremely professional company of Ain’t Too Proud makes it difficult to praise individual brilliance, certain performances stand out: Ephraim Sykes perfectly portrays the fractured genius of lead singer David Ruffin, nailing both the singing splits, the mike flip, the fluid dance moves, and a hypnotizing personal gravity. Derrick Baskin, meanwhile, plays a flawed but loyal Otis Williams. And, in a fabulous twist, instead of being written off the moment she becomes pregnant and estranged, Otis Scott’s shotgun-wed wife Josephine, masterfully played by Rashidra Scott, returns to sing a bone-chilling, stratospheric solo to the audience.
Ain’t Too Proud specifically deals with the Temptations’ struggle, especially as an all-black ensemble, between getting involved in the political art movement or playing it safe, between career and family, and between collective brotherhood and individual fame. Substance abuse, the personal trauma of growing up city-poor and being jumped into a gang, and the act of abandoning your family for something perceived as greater are all given much weight. At times the sheer breadth of human failure present in each Temptation seems to overwhelm what keeps them together — the music — but then another song rises up, its choreography made all the more poignant by the struggles of those singing it.
Berkeley Rep has gone completely all-out on every aspect of this production. Props include a fully-stocked bar, the myriad of ropes hanging down from a backstage recreated onstage, and numerous appetizing-looking lunch and dinner spreads. A live band is featured backstage. Matching suits were made for each of the Temptations, and as a finale, the entire cast plus the musicians wear identical white tuxedos. Ain’t Too Proud is a masterful, extremely professional, if rather taxing production. The beginning portion — dealing with the backstory of Otis Scott, and all the permutations of band members before the original lineup was created — drags a bit, making it difficult to become invested in the musicians’ lives. But moments where the production’s energy is lost are few, a testament to the tight choreography and stage presence of those involved. This play is well worth seeing whether you know and love the Temptations or not — you will want to stand up in your seat and sing along.