The Marvelous Marvelettes
Written by Reginald Williams
Directed by Rueben D. Echoles
at Black Ensemble Theater, 4450 N. Clark (map)
thru Sept 7 | tickets: $55-$65 | more info
Check for half-price tickets
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Strong storytelling illuminates Marvelettes hits and heartbreaks
Black Ensemble Theater presents
The Marvelous Marvelettes
Review by Catey Sullivan
History has not been especially kind to the Marvelettes. They predated – and for years outsold – The Supremes, giving Motown its first million-selling record, its first hit on the Hot 100 and its first crossover pop hit with “Please Mister Postman.” By the time the Supremes got their first hit with “Where did Our Love Go,” the Marvelettes had been cranking out two top-40 hits every 12 months for two consecutive years. Still, it’s the Supremes that most people mention when you mention best-selling Motown girlgroups of the 1960s.
Directed by Rueben D. Echholes, The Marvelous Marvelettes doesn’t shy away from the group’s heartbreak. When they signed their Motown contracts, the quintet of teenagers from Inkster, Michigan – Gladys Horton (Melanie McCullough) was only 15, Katherine Anderson (Christina Harper), Georgeanna Tillman (Katrina D. Richard), Juanita Cowart (Kylah Frye) and Georgia Dobbins (Marquecia Jordan) weren’t much older. Naïve and dazzled at the prospect of working for Barry Gordy’s record company, they signed their contracts without attorneys. As a result, they never saw much money (two percent of the profits, split five ways, minus the cost of recording sessions) from their grueling, three-show-a-day years on the road.
Gordy promised them tutors, but the Marvelettes’ formal schooling stopped once they started working for him. Georgeanna continued performing, even as she grew deathly ill. She was dead by 36, treatment for her sickle cell and lupus being a luxury not afforded by the Marvelettes schedule. Georgia dropped out immediately, because her parents objected to their daughter pursuing a career in show business. She was replaced by Wanda Young (Alanna Taylor), who quickly took to hard drinking, often showing up drunk to shows. Gladys became a ward of the state. Juanita suffered depression, and left the group after going on national television and stating that Detroit was a suburb of Inkster, Michigan.
More than 35 years after their 1960 founding, the group was awarded the Rhythm and Blues Pioneer Award, and in 2004, they were inducted into the Vocal Hall of Fame. But those awards seem like cold comfort in light of the millions they earned but never saw and the opportunities they gave up in order to pursue a dream that quickly, as Taylor notes in The Marvelous Marvelettes, quickly “turned into a nightmare.”
Echoles and an ensemble of able, energetic vocalists capture the heartbreak as well as the music in Black Ensemble’s musical bio, as a four-piece band directed by drummer/arranger Robert Reddrick provides a driving backbeat. Taylor frames the story around the bittersweet reminisces of Katherine and Juanita, played in their 60something versions by Rhonda Preston (Older Juanita) and Deanna Reed-Foster (Older Catherine). Sitting in an airport coffeeshop, they remember the brief highs and the seemingly endless lows of the teenage stardom.
The flashbacks are energetic and revealing, with McCullough depicting a bouncy, charismatic and starry-eyed girl whose hopes and dreams all-too quickly turn to disillusionment. Taylor plays Wanda’s drunken shenanigans a bit too comedically for the sorrow of the singer’s situation to fully come through.
The quintet’s blend is good, but the acoustics in BET’s space aren’t always ideal. The band overpowers the singers more than a few times, and the lyrics are sometimes less than crystal-clear. Ruthanne Swanson’s costume design is a vivid interpretation of the era, from the flouncy, girlish frocks the Marvelettes started out in to the slinky, body-conscious sheaths of their later years.
And as a greedy, manipulative and imperious Berry Gordy, Robert N. Isaac makes a nicely understated villain. Spitting out lines like “You take these kids form nothing. You make them stars. (And) they’re so ungrateful,” he’s singularly tone-deaf to massively unfair business practices that made him rich while using up youngsters like disposable dishrags.
Rating: ★★★
The Marvelous Marvelettes continues through September 7th at Black Ensemble Theater, 4450 N. Clark (map), with performances Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 3pm and 8pm, Sundays 3pm. Tickets are $55-$65, and are available by phone (773-769-4451) or online at PrintTixUSA.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More info at BlackEnsembleTheater.org. (Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes, includes an intermission)
Photos by Danny Nicholas
artists
cast
Rhonda Preston (Older Juanita), Deanna Reed-Foster (Older Katherine), Melanie McCullough (Gladys), Alanna Taylor (Wanda), Kylah Frye (Juanita), Christina Harper (Katherine), Katrina D. Richard (Georgeanna), Marquecia Jordan (Georgia), Robert N. Isaac (Berry Gordy), Ereatha McCullough (Mrs. Sharpley), Claudia Alexandria Cunningham (Esther Gordy Edwards), Donald Craig Manuel (Robert Bateman), Tamarus Harvell (Mr. Thomas, Announcer), Daniel Phillips (Brian Holland, Jimmy Ruffin), Michelle Bester, Aaron Normal (understudies).
musicians
Robert Reddrick (musical director, drummer, arranger), Herb Walker (guitar), Justin Dillard (keyboards), Danny O’Connor aka Smoke (bass)
behind the scenes
Rueben D. Echoles (director), Cara Parrish (stage manager), Tanya Harry (assistant stage manager), Emily Breyer (props designer), Ruthanne Swanson (costume designer), Aaron Quick (sound designer), Xenon Zeigler (assistant sound designer), Coco Ree Lemry (scenic painter), Gordon Granger (technical director), Denise Karczewski (lighting design), Danny Nicholas (photos)
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