The American

Charles Randolph-Wright

The director, writer and producer, in London for the UK premiere of his hit show, Motown The Musical, chats with The American

“...London completely changed my life”

PHO

TO: AN

DREW

ECCLES

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Charles, we’re all eagerly await-ing the show coming to Lon-

don. But could we start by going back to how it all started for you.

I was born in a small town in South Carolina, a family of doctors, lawyers and teachers. My mother was an Eng-lish professor, an amazing woman - I just lost her this year. When I started school she said “You make an A or an F in this family - average is not good enough!” It was the kind of family you don’t see on TV, or if you do they’re shown as unusual. There are so many families all over the country who have those sort of values, not the troubled families that are portrayed.

I’m guessing you got As. What would have happened if you’d come home with an F?

In a way, getting an F was when I went into show business. I was expected to be a doctor and went to Duke University to do Pre-Med. Years later my mother - who saw every pro-duction I ever did - said “You will heal far more people with what you do than you ever would have as a doctor. That was huge, and I never expected it. That gave me permission. I often

talk about permission and who gives it to you. I was lucky to have a town, a school, a family who support me and what I do. It allowed me to dream.

My school didn’t have a theater program. I was in the marching band, that was my way of having ‘art’. That band director was very influential - and teachers are everything. He taught us to respect and appreci-ate art. A friend asked me to to be in the school play, the first I was in - although my family says I was always taking my cousins and making them do a show! - but I was still going into medicine. Then in my sophomore year at college I was in the organic chemistry lab and a friend said he had tickets to see Pippin. The show affected me on so many levels. The leading player was a man of color, and I’d never seen a role like that. I sat on the library steps with my friend and talked all night. I said, “I have to do this. I don’t want to ever regret that I didn’t do it, whether I succeed in it or not.” I carried on with my Pre-Med courses, but joined the Duke choir and started a theater group.

In the late ‘70s I spent my junior

year in London and it completely changed my life. I studied with Stella Chapman, the wife of Denis Quilley and they became my British family. I met Roger Rees, who was like my big brother. We studied with actors from the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. You could just go up to Albert Finney and talk to him! It was beyond a dream come true and it gave me a vision of what I could do. London was where I decided to pursue the madness of show business.

I’ve been to London various times over the years but to come back and do a show in the West End is a dream. London is one of my favorite cities, always has been. I remember going up the escalator in Leicester Square tube and seeing all the show post-ers and thinking, one day I’m going to have a poster here. I forgot about it til I was back in London to audition actors for Motown. The marketing team brought in some posters. All of a sudden that little kid came back - I thought, oh my God, you really did it!

Another thing my Mom used to say was that the pursuit of the dream

Motown The Musical London launch from left: Lenny Henry (host), Berry

Gordy & Charles Randolph-Wright PHOTO: CRAIG SUGDEN

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Gordy [founder of Motown Records] said, “The truth is a hit”.

Motown brought a country together when we were separated. It still does. And when the musi-cal travels around the country I see it happen again. At the opening in Washington the audience was not exactly subdued but there was a dif-ferent energy than usual to start with. I realized that everyone had come in with San Bernadino on their minds - another mass shooting. The power and magic of theater helped shift the mood of all these people, to find some joy and hope in the midst of this constant darkness.

Live music can do that too, and I notice that nearly all your shows include strong musical ele-ments - the reviews of your recent Akeelah and the Bee mentioned the soundtrack, unusual in a live play.

I don’t read reviews, so I didn’t know that. Actually, someone told me I would put a dance number in the middle of Long Day’s Journey into Night - I said, yeah, probably! But I thought Akeelah and the Bee should have music behind the story, not be a

One of the things I love about Motown music is that we have far more in common than we are dissim-ilar. That’s the message I try to bring into the world ...as I’m talking to you I realize that was my upbringing and what I studied.

Five years ago you were given Equity’s Paul Robeson Award, for humanitarian as well as artistic achievements.

It stunned me. I couldn’t believe I was on the list with Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee. It’s not why you do it, but its thrilling when somebody notices the work you do. I always try to find a place for artists of color, or anyone who’s dis-enfranchised, because they don’t get the opportunities. Bringing Motown to London, it was important to me that the company was from the UK and that we weren’t bringing over all the artists from the States. In fact Motown is still far more alive in the UK than it is in the States. All the art-ists I listen to are British - Adele, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Emeli Sandé. They sing and write real songs that tell a story... that tell the truth. And as Mr

was more important than the dream, and I completely believe that: when it happens, that’s the icing, but having a dream is what propels you. All the Americans reading this - why are they in the UK, what led them there?

Your degree was a joint major, Theater and Religion - in your mind, are they linked?

Absolutely! In Britain, theater started in the Church - think of the Passion Plays. I saw Everyman at the National recently and it brought back all my religious training. My friends say all my work has some kind of jour-ney and in a way it’s a kind of minis-try. I’m very involved in my church - in fact I’m producing an online show, Just Faith, by my minister on MSNBC Shift, which looks at religion from a different standpoint. I was on one of the first episodes about faith on Broadway with Kevin McCollum, the producer of Motown. We constantly talk about interfaith, because of the madness happening in the States and everywhere ...the whole idea of politicians blocking people coming into the country because of their faith, what century is this?

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The launch: ‘The Supremes’ (Tanya

Nicole Edwards, Lucy St Louis,

Cherelle Williams) PHOTO ©CRAIG SUGDEN

musical. It’s a different energy.You’ve said that it’s important

for kids to see people who look like them in the forefront of a story, not as a sidekick.

Do you remember the Tom Hanks film, Cast Away? When it came out I said that the character of Wilson [the volleyball] was the quintessen-tial black character: he’s not the star, he has no lines, he’s athletic, he’s the best friend of the main character, and he dies saving him.

I was in St Louis with the Motown tour, during the [Michael Brown shooting] trial. I took 200 kids from Ferguson and Normandy to the show. They lived in a community where they felt they didn’t matter, but by the end their teachers were weeping - they said the kids hadn’t smiled for months. When I was grow-ing up we saw the news at 6. Now they’re bombarded with images and messages telling you their neighbor-hood is bad. As artists we can coun-teract that, we have the power to heal and help people change. I want to be the person who changes the world. And if I don’t, maybe I’ll be the person who affects the person who changes the world.

Berry Gordy said, at the London launch of Motown The Musical, that Motown’s first UK tour in the ‘60s made them realize they were more than a local Detroit phenomenon.

It was. There was a young woman who became a producer on the Ready, Steady, Go! TV show called Vicki Wickham. She was working with Dusty Springfield, who had heard this American music. Vicki literally brought Motown over to England. I call Vicki my Mum! I’m trying to get her to tell her story, because what she did changed the world of music. I got them back together for a documen-

tary about Mr Gordy for the BBC and it was fascinating to see the love they had for each other.

Berry Gordy loves England because that’s where the door opened to the world. Motown went global when there was no internet. People shared - Dusty brought back records and gave them to somebody else… Pirate radio was huge and they played Motown records. Mr Gordy talked about the ‘white sheet kids’ who listened to their radios under their bedclothes at night. England is so special to him. It changed Motown forever - The Supremes met the Queen! The Beatles recorded Motown songs. Those worlds collided and cre-ated something special. That’s the magic of America and England - those of us who come there, and what we experience, and how it changes us - and I guess that’s what your maga-

zine is all about, too! [laughs]Thank you for the plug! But

your cast are mainly British - do they understand how important Motown was, not just musically but socially?

I feel that they do. When I was auditioning them everybody said we would need to bring over American actors. But they did their research, they knew everything about the characters and they’ve really nailed the vocal performances and the movements. It’s in their DNA. The DNA of Motown is not just Detroit, it’s not just black, or not just American, it’s spread throughout the world.

So the Sound of Young America became the Sound of Joy?

That’s right. I’m so looking for-ward to directing it in London. I’ll be over for two and a half months.

What else will you be doing outside of the theater?

I love the architecture I’m a cathe-dral fanatic. When I first came over I would hitchhike to different cities at weekends and go looking for them. The view of Salisbury Cathedral’s spire is one of my favorite images. In London I go walking and I can’t go past a church without going in.

Finally, what is the best thing about being Charles Randolph-Wright?

The best thing about being me is that I am living the life my mother told me I could have.

Motown The Musical is at Shaftesbury Theatre, London, booking to Feb. 2017. No booking fees via www.motownthemusical.co.uk, over the phone on 020 7379 5399 or in person at the Shaftesbury Theatre Box Office.

Below: The launch - Charles Randolph-Wright with Aisha Jawando (as Martha Reeves), Berry Gordy and Lucy St Louis (as Diana Ross)

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