2004: Season Thirteen
Dancin' in the Streets

REVIEW
Motor to Motown
Harlequin stages soulful revue
Steve Dunkelberger for The Volcano

Save that trip to Detroit for something other than a tour of all the best places for music you were planning this summer. That Motown sound can be found right here in the South Sound during Harlequin Productions’ staging of “Dancin’ in the Streets: a Motor City Rock and Roll Celebration.”

This original work is directed by Harlequin founder Linda Whitney, arranged and musically directed by Bruce Whitney, brother of founder Scot Whitney and choreographed by Steven Taylor, who also rocks out on some of the key vocal numbers. The show is slow and methodic when it needs to be and fast and thunderous when the music demands power. It’s like “A Night at the Apollo” exploded and massive chucks of it landed in Olympia. Thud. Bang. Crash. This show can do no wrong.

The music of Motown smashed racial and cultural borders as it brought the gospel peaks and early rock beats of the African American tradition to white audiences for the first time in the late 1950s and early 1960s, changing pop music forever. This revue is all that energy and soul packed into a show less than two hours long but includes all the hits from that era – some 33 songs. The play list jumps from “You Can’t Hurry Love” by the Supremes to “Aint Nothing Like the Real Thing” by Marvin Gaye to “Dancin’ in the Streets” by Martha and the Vandellas. Audience toes tap, heads bob and fingers snap while one song transitions to the next, and the spotlight shifts through the playbill of solid singers and dancers.

Raney Burson, Duane George, Cristy Havens, Charlie Parker, Brandon O'Neill and Taylor make the performance seem like Motown landed in your living room. The choreography is tight and crisp. The notes are smooth and snappy. The worst voice in the show is the guy sitting behind me singing along to all the hits. And even he was pretty good, all things considered.
Oh yeah, and the band kicked it. Whitney on keyboards and guitar with Dan Blunck on sax, David Broyles on guitar, Rick Jarvela on bass, Maria Joyner on drums and Andy Omdahl on trumpet and keyboards head up a band worth recording.

It’s shows of this quality that drew Harlequin patrons to cough up $35,000 in just three weeks when they learned the theater was having troubles earlier this year. Shutting its doors would have left a void in the Olympia theater scene as deep and wide as the Nile. Although it still needs $15,000 to get a grant of $25,000 from ultra-generous folks at Heritage Bank and clear away its short-term debt, Harlequin is sitting pretty solid these days. This show proves that.

'Dancin' in the Streets' an exuberant Motown salute
Alec Clayton for The Tribune

Harlequin Production's "Dancin' in the Streets" is a salute to Motown that is sure to please anyone who ever sang along with Little Stevie Wonder or swayed to the infectious beat of the Temptations. It is an evening of sheer exuberance and one transcendental moment of reverence.

There are no bad seats in Harlequin's State Theater, and my wife and I were seated off to one side, where we had an excellent view of the stage and could also see most of the audience. Watching the audience was bonus entertainment.
Predominantly baby boomers, they minded their manners at first but were not able to contain their excitement for very long.

The opening number was a solo of the Miracles' "Ooh Baby Baby" performed by Duane George, a seasoned performer with more than 20 years of stage experience. He has studied with the likes of Debbie Allen and Alvin Ailey.

George is a muscular man. Watching him step onto the elevated Motown record label disc center stage, I expected a rumbling voice to burst forth - something like Paul Robeson. But when he opened his mouth to sing, what came out was a lovely and plaintive soprano. Heads began to nod in the audience. I could see dreamy smiles under the house lights.

Next to take the spotlight were Raney December Burson, Cristy Havens and Charlie Parker - on the Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love," with Havens taking the lead. Like the singers in many of the girl trios made famous by Berry Gordy, Jr., all three have strong voices that harmonize easily. The audience got caught up in the rhythm, and I noticed more heads bobbing in time to the beat.

The bobbing heads became infectious when Steven Taylor and company rocked out on the Temptations' "Sunshine of My Life," and a little girl in front of me started dancing in her seat along with the singer/dancers who were getting it on with Taylor's choreographed dance steps. The band did a convincing imitation of the famous Motown house band, the fabulous Funk Brothers, and trumpter Andy Omdahl stepped forward for a rousing solo. The audience was hooked.

By the time Brandon O'Neill lent his gravelly voice to Marvin Gaye's classic "I Heard it Through the Grapevine," the audience was no longer content to just bob their heads; they were dancing in their seats and clapping with the beat. It was all the girl in front of me could do to keep from jumping up on stage.

Still on the same number, the crowd went absolutely wild when O'Neill started scat singing along with the gospel-style call and response of Omdahl's trumpet and David Broyles' guitar. That was halfway through Act One. From that point on the crowd was part of the show, swaying, clapping to the beat, shouting out words of encouragement - right up to the finale on Martha and the Vandellas' "Dancin' in the Streets," when everyone was standing and about 25 audience members were invited onstage to dance with the cast.

All six singers were outstanding, as was the band conducted by keyboardist Bruce Whitney and driven by drummer Maria Joyner's heavy beat. Taylor's choreography was simple but joyful. Sets and lighting were unobtrusive and well done but not really needed at all.

A few high points worth mentioning included Parker's solo on "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" and her duet with Taylor on "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," Burson's rendition of "Heatwave" and O'Neill and Havens' duet on "You're All I Need to Get By."

Finally, the one transcendental moment of reverence I mentioned was when Taylor was left alone on stage to perform his unique interpretation of the National Anthem, which segued into Marvin Gaye's anti-war anthem, "What's Going On." There was a contemporary political message in this that did not go unnoticed in the audience.

Several people gave the song a standing ovation while Taylor sang.