Magic of Motown New Victoria Theatre Woking Review

03/12/2013

1,475 2 minutes read

Magic of Motown
New Victoria Theatre, Woking

Reviewed by Rachel Gully

On Friday 29 November I visited the New Victoria Theatre in Woking to review The Magic of Motown. Direct from the USA, the show – which is produced by Michael Taylor – features 36 Big Motown Hits!

Three gals and four guys perform outstanding renditions of famous Motown songs from the likes of Jackson 5, Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Four Tops, The Temptations, The Supremes, Martha Reeves and more – all with a live four piece band.

The atmosphere in the theatre was remarkable. As soon as the music started, the lead singer whipped the crowd into a frenzy and everyone was ready for a fun evening. However, be prepared to spend most of the concert standing, even if you don’t want to. The crowd all get up out of their seats to dance about to all time favourites such as ‘My Girl’, ‘Stop in the Name of Love’, ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’, ‘I Want You Back’, ‘I’ll Be There’. ‘Dancing on the Ceiling’, ‘Endless Love’, What becomes of the Broken Hearted’, ‘I heard it through the Grapevine’, ‘Blame it on the Boogie’, ‘Midnight Train to Georgia’ and many more.

With several sparkling costume changes and tightly choreographed dance routines, the seven vocalists certainly put their all in to their performances – although I felt that the male lead sometimes went a little over the top with his humorous antics. He was good at getting the crowd to join in though. If you are taking children like I did, I took my 6 year old daughter with me, I would recommend getting a seat either on the end of the row, near the front, or up in the circles. She struggled to see some of the acts due to people in front standing up to dance, and I ended up picking her up for the majority of the show just so she could see.

Some of the impersonations seemed a little in bad taste and were not really necessary, although the Jackson 5 set was very well done with one of the female singers playing the role of Michael Jackson, and the four males making up the rest of the band. The female lead sang incredibly well, and if you close your eyes you would think a young Michael Jackson was there in person.

I would have loved to have heard the girls sing some more of the hit tunes and had a bit more of an equal share to the boys – I felt they did a lot of the backing singing. When on occasion they had the lead vocal, their voices were pitch perfect and more than strong enough to carry the iconic songs.

Overall, this was a really entertaining show with great vocals. You don’t have to be a hardcore Motown fan to see this lively and energetic show, which brings hit after hit to one dazzling stage production celebrating one of the most popular record labels ever! It truly is an outstanding show – and fun for all the family!

Rating: 5/5