Stage Door Chat; Dancing in the Streets

 l-r (Paul Hazel, Rob Grose, Courtney Buchannan, Adebayo Bolaji)

Stage Door went backstage to talk to some of the cast of the West End show Dancing in the Streets during their run at the Hall for Cornwall.  We talked about the music and the great Motown artists that inspired the show.  I started by chatting to Paul and Rob.

Firstly I asked whether the cast were inspired to be portraying such great artists and performing their music.

“Absolutely!” was the reply from Paul who performs Smokey Robinson’s numbers in the show. “How could you not be?”  Both agreed that they were very aware of the history of both the songs and artists.

“We’re not mimicking them, that’s very important,” Rob told me.  “We recreate the look as best we can but the main thing the show recreates is the energy of these performers and their music.”

 I asked whether they had put something of themselves and their own interpretation into the performances.

 “More than a little” they both agreed. “The performances are mostly us.  There are aspects we can recreate; dance moves, and obviously some artists like Stevie Wonder and Diana Ross have a certain style.  But a lot of these artists can’t be mimicked.  They don’t have any “isms” and that’s where we are able to perform with the same energy but in our own way.”

I also asked them if any of the artists were particular favourites of theirs.  

“You naturally get attached to your own set,”  Paul replied. Rob agreed but they both added that the Stevie Wonder numbers are particularly special to perform, even as backing singers, and that the Temptations were a favourite prior to the show.

My next question was how they felt that these artists compared to modern pop stars.

“No comparison!” they replied instantly. “We’re talking about these performers and enjoying their music 50 years later.  Do you think they will be doing that with who we’ve got at the moment?”

They agreed though that there are similarities, particularly in how the groups then, and now, were very carefully put together by the recording companies.  This opinion was echoed by some of the female actors who also noted that the groups were created in a quite artificial way not unlike today.

As a follow-up I asked the cast how they thought their acts might fare on a show such as the X factor.

“The problem would be getting through in the first place,” Rob explained.  “Quite a few of the Motown stars were very raw at the start.  They had no social graces, some may well have been in trouble with the law in the past.  The studio managed them very carefully.  I don’t know whether they would have made it past audition for that reason. But on the show, absolutely.  They’d blow the competition away.  There was such raw talent and energy.”

“Take Smokey, for instance,” Paul added “It wouldn’t matter what he performed, he’d always attack it hard and put in a great performance. There was such raw talent there it would definitely shine through… if they got on.”

Both the male and the female actors were quick to point out that these groups were every bit as manufactured as modern bands.  In that sense they might have fitted the X Factor format.  They also commented that Motown’s studio auditioned in a not dissimilar way, with queues around the block on occasion.  However the sense was that Motown had an eye for spotting talent in very rough diamonds which modern promoters and studios might not be prepared to take on.

The consensus of the female artists was much the same – getting on might have been an issue but there is no question that The Supremes would stand out!

Turning to the music itself, I asked what they thought it was that made some of these songs such classics.

“The lyrics" Rob answered at once.  “They are very powerful, and full of meaning.  Lots of them tell stories and they just resonate. There is lots of double meaning there as well.”  They explained that these artists were true all-rounders writing a lot of the songs themselves.

“The way they combined lyrics and dance moves was very clever too." Rob added. "You see it during some performances, the audience are automatically doing the steps and actions they’ve seen on old clips.  Like “Stop in the Name of Love” everyone remembers that.  The visual element with the music was very important.”

I then asked how hard some of these numbers are to sing given their wide vocal range.

“Very hard indeed!” both replied.  “They were written right at the top of the register.  This was deliberate, to create that pleading, sincere sound.  But singing eight shows a week, this puts a real strain on our voices.  There are a couple of numbers where we’ve dropped it an octave.  Performing on tour is a very different game. You couldn’t hit those notes every night as you would in a studio recording.”

They also explained that protecting their voices was a tough job. “It’s unbelievable what you have to do!  Cold draughts are really bad for us. Obviously you avoid anyone with a cold etc. You’ll notice a lot of us wear scarves!”

 Finally I couldn’t leave without giving them a chance to comment on the wigs.

“You get attached to them!” Rob replied dryly.  “No, seriously, it’s something that gives the audience a quiet smile.  A couple are actually a bit more extreme than the artist’s real hairstyles but that’s part of the drama of the show.  The visual effect on stage is important. They’re not too bad.”