A Motown Musical Blast From the Past Comes to Santa Barbara

‘Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations’ Brings the Incredible True Story of One of the Greatest R&B Groups of All Time to the Stage

(L – R) Reyanna Edwards, Rudy Foster, Jamal Stone, Lowes Moore, Jasmine Barboa, Jameson Clanton, Bryce Valle, and Kaila Symone Crowder from the National Touring Company of 'Ain’t Too Proud' | Photo: Joan Marcus

Motown comes to Downtown Santa Barbara next week with the Broadway touring company of the smash hit musical Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations coming to The Granada Theatre March 11-12.

Chronicling the band’s extraordinary journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and set to the beat of the group’s beloved hits — including “My Girl,” “Just My Imagination,” “Get Ready,” and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” among others — and signature dance moves. The musical, which opened on Broadway on March 21, 2019, and was nominated for 12 Tony Awards including Best Musical, brings the incredible true story of the greatest R&B group of all time to the stage. With a Tony Award–nominated book by Dominique Morisseau, Ain’t Too Proud features an iconic score made up of The Temptations’ legendary songs. Two-time Tony Award–winner Des McAnuff directs, with Tony Award–winning choreography by Sergio Trujillo.

Rudy Foster, who stars as Otis Williams, took some time out from the tour to answer a few of my questions this week.

Lowes Moore, Jameson Clanton, Josiah Travis Kent Rogers, Rudy Foster, Bryce Valle from the National Touring Company of ‘Ain’t Too Proud’ | Photo: Joan Marcus

The Temptations are such musical legends. What’s it like to take on such well known songs that you presumably grew up with?

The Temptations are musical legends indeed! I’ve been having a blast with this show because we get to sing some truly iconic songs. We also get to use them as storytelling pieces. This music resonates with people because the Motown sound was the soundtrack of America at a moment in time, but is still relevant today. I did grow up listening to The Temptations! It’s an incredible honor to share their music and their legacy with the country.

The music is obviously very familiar to many, but what about the group’s personal history. What are some things you learned about the Temptations since you’ve been a part of the show?

Something that I didn’t fully understand before was how one of the founding members (and the character I play), Otis Williams, worked with great intention to build the group. He’s still performing with The Temptations today! Many of the early members came from the same neighborhood in Detroit, but Otis worked to find and recruit talent that he felt would build toward the vision he had for the group.

I’ve also enjoyed learning more about the group dynamic between the earlier members of the group. The Temptations is a unit and stands together as a group, but it’s been fascinating to explore the individual lives of the men in the group.

(L – R) Reyanna Edwards, Jasmine Barboa, Kaila Symone Crowder from the National Touring Company of ‘Ain’t Too Proud’ | Photo: Joan Marcus

As part of a touring company, how aware are you of different cities that you play in? The spaces obviously differ. What about the audiences?

We’ve had so much fun seeing how the show plays in different parts of the country! It is true that some regions respond to different parts of the show in different ways!

For instance, we recently had incredible audiences in Colorado who were a bit quiet during the show, but were enthusiastic with their applause and appreciation at the end of the show. On the other hand, we just finished up in San Francisco and had equally incredible audiences literally talking back to us and singing along with us throughout the show!

Also, the food. We’ve been having so much fun eating our way across the country. There’s so much to see and taste!

What’s one of the funniest, or most memorable, things that’s happened during the show run so far?

For me, the most memorable moment has been Temps founding member, Otis Williams, and the group’s longtime manager, Shelly Berger, attending our opening night in Chicago this past fall. We didn’t know they would be there until moments before we started the performance! I play Otis every night, so it was very surreal to have the real Otis in the audience as I tell his story. I even got to introduce Otis and Shelly to make some remarks after the show! I’m still pinching myself over that experience.

As far as funny moments, it’s always fun to get a full audience singing along with us. It happens regularly when we sing “My Girl,” one of the Temptations’ biggest hits. Folks have such personal memories and history with this music, they can’t help but sing and yes, even get up and dance!

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Anything else you want to share?

I just want to say that we are so excited to come to Santa Barbara! Come on out to Ain’t Too Proud for a night you won’t soon forget!

Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations is on stage at The Granada Theatre March 11-12. Tickets are available at BroadwaySantaBarbara.com, GranadaSB.org or by calling (805) 899-2222.