"In the early 1960s, in a town called Detroit, local kids were looking for a form of expression they could call their own." So says the press handout by way of introduction to this stage musical, which has opened in the West End after a regional tour. Everyone knows what happened next. The "town" (in fact, a sprawling "motor city", as coined by the Martha Reeves song after which the show is named) produced a record label that triggered a youthquake. The Motown story, and the hits of its golden first five years, is so familiar that this show should be docked a point for obviousness.
Having said that, the point is immediately restored in recognition of the producers' ingenuity - in search of an angle, they've linked the show to the 40th anniversary of the label's first UK tour. That's the plot in a nutshell: it's 1965, and we're watching the young Stevie Wonder, Supremes, Smokey Robinson and many other soon-to-be-household names (all played by unknown British singers) strut their considerable stuff for the first time on a London stage. The Temptations, Gladys Knight, Marvin Gaye - they're all here, evening-gowned, pompadoured and touchingly eager. There's even an incongruous visit by an oily lover-boy from the future, Lionel Richie - who, bafflingly, gets the female half of the crowd in the biggest tizzy of the night.
They sing their hits, nearly 40 of them, which can genuinely be classed as all killer, no filler. And, well, that's it. There's nothing beyond karaoke performances in period costume. While there is a master of ceremonies - American actor Ray Shell, whose hammed-up ghetto accent distracts from the fact that he isn't actually very funny - his only task is to introduce the acts.
Hence, there's no history or attempt at social contextualisation, which is scandalous given Motown's critical role in bringing black music into the mainstream. Amazingly, Shell ends with the words: "These songs are still heard in shopping centres around the world." Surely the dampest squib ever to be applied to tunes that changed the face of music.
· Until September 24. Box office: 0870 890 1102.
