Entertainment

Berry Gordy Opens Famous Motown Musical in L.A.

Published

11 years ago

May 13, 2015

Berry Gordy, Jr., speaks to the audience during the “Motown: The Musical” at The Hollywood Pantages Theatre. (Photo By Valerie Goodloe)

By Danny Bakewell Jr.
Special to the NNPA from the LA Watts Times

The Motown sound began with Berry Gordy as a dreamer in Detroit and the music that originated from Hitsville U.S.A. ignited a sound of lyrics beats and hymns that transformed culture and was beloved by everyone.

Now, the story of Gordy is being told from the stage in the famous Broadway hit sensation “Motown: The Musical” that arrived from New York to Los Angeles.

Gordy feels “lucky”, he said, for having chosen Charles Randolph Wright to direct, since “on paper there were so many great Broadway directors he could have picked from.”

“It’s the ultimate honor,” said Randolph when asked about the challenge of directing the historical musical.

“People asked, ‘are you nervous?’ I said, ‘No, I know what this is. I’m not sleeping at all but I understand what this is. I understood every part of Motown… family, the love. All these things were important to me. [Gordy] and Smokey entrusted me with this. So, when someone believes in you, you’ll do anything in your power to do your best.”

Wright’s main goal was to tell the story accurately and organically.

“Motown: The Musical” is the true American dream story of Gordy’s journey from featherweight boxer to the heavyweight music mogul who launched the careers of Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson and many more. Through his vision Motown shattered barriers, shaped our lives and made us all move to the same beat.

The musical chronicles Gordy’s life and how he started Motown. Based on his book, “To Be Loved”, it features over 40 classic songs and is playing at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood through June 7. Bringing his story to life, presented both challenges and joys, he said.

“When you’re working on a project [sometimes] there are nothing but challenges,” Gordy said during a recent interview with the Sentinel.

“Because, we wanted to do it as truthful as possible with the amount of time that we had. But the truth has to be entertaining, otherwise it’s a documentary.”

The joy came in having “wonderful characters to write about,” said Gordy.

“These are the characters of my life, my best friend Smokey Robinson… the fact that we’re still best friends after all that we’ve been through, it’s amazing, a testament to great love.”

Gordy described Robinson as a friend who suffered with him through thick and thin, following him down roads, “even where there were no roads…”

For his part, Robinson counts it all as the record company’s inherent family environment.

“Many people have thought throughout the years, that the Motown family was mythical. ‘It could not have possibly been that way. How could all those different musicians with different egos and personalities have been like family,’” Robinson explained.

“But there is still a Motown family. For those of us who are still alive, we still have the Motown family because the love is so deep rooted. It was the foremost thing. I think we learned it from the Gordys, because their family was so together and I think that just spilled over into the way he set Motown up…”

Gordy founded Motown Records in Detroit, Michigan in 1959. Although many have come to recognize the “Motown Sound” as a brand in itself, in reality Motown’s records encompassed many different genres of music, from early rhythm and blues to soul, funk, pop, and more.

A company brochure published in the early 1960s details Motown’s goals to “satisfy a variety of preferences in popular music.” Diversity has always been a key component of the Motown legacy.

Gordy himself was inspired by the “truth- telling” of early black music. As he told Ebony magazine, “From the drumbeat rhythms… that our ancestors carried

from Africa, to the work songs and Negro spirituals of slavery, black music is a chronicle of our collective emotional journey in this world – pain and sadness, happiness and celebration… wisdom and faith.” Gordy embraced this philosophy and passed on the importance of using music to tell the truth about life to those he worked with.

One of “those”, Edna Anderson (who was an activist and Gordy’s personal assistant), and who he credits as the greatest person he’s ever worked with, was the subject of dedication for the show’s opening night. Anderson had been ill and had taken a leave of absence from the company. Her attendance was a pleasant surprise for Gordy.

“She’s just the most beautiful person I’ve known,” Gordy said. “This night is dedicated to her…”

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

5 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

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Arts and Culture

Prescott Circus Theatre Presents Free Summer Performance Series

Now in its 41st year, the Prescott Circus Theatre is a nationally recognized performing arts education program for Oakland youth. The circus offers safe environments that challenge Oakland youth, through circus arts training, to develop the skills and confidence to thrive on stage, in school, and in life.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

Prescott Circus showcase pathways pyramid. Photo courtesy of Prescott Circus.

By Post Staff

The Prescott Circus, Oakland’s longest-running youth circus, is returning this summer with its free shows. Join the Prescott Circus’s young stars as they share their joys and talents through stilt-dancing, tumbling, juggling, and more.

At the heart of this one-hour show, which demonstrates teamwork, pride, and joy, are Oakland Unified School District students ages 8 – 17 from more than 10 different schools

This is accomplished through no-cost school and community programs for more than 300 Oakland youth each year. Performing company members from Prescott, where the program began, perform and make appearances at as many as 40 Bay Area events each year.

The summer program is funded in part by Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, California Arts Council, Port of Oakland, and the West Davis & Bergard Foundation.

Performances will be held Tuesday, July 14, 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (ASL interpreted) and Wednesday, July 15, 11 a.m., at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. For free reservations go to

https://PrescottCircusSummerShows.eventbrite.com

For group reservations for camps, childcare centers, senior centers, go to www.prescottcircus.org

A community show will be held Saturday, July 18, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., at DeFremery Park,1651 Adeline St., Oakland.

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50 Years Later, ‘Wake Up Everybody!’ Still Resonates During Black Music

The words of the song, “Wake Up Everybody,” debuted by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes in 1975, still resonate today as those words are just as relevant more than a half century later.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

iStockphoto.

By Hazel Trice Edney, Special to The Post

Hazel Trice Edney

“Wake up, everybody, No more sleepin’ in bed

No more backward thinkin’. Time for thinkin’ ahead

The world has changed so very much from what it used to be.

There is so much hatred, war, and poverty.

“The world won’t get no better If we just let it be.

Naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw.

The world won’t get no better. We gotta change it, yeah– just you and me.”

The words of the song, “Wake Up Everybody,” debuted by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes in 1975, still resonate today as those words are just as relevant more than a half century later.

In a rare, nearly somber moment, the group’s celebrated lead singer, Teddy Pendergrass, introduced the song on Soul Train, the weekly dance and live performance TV show that aired roughly between 1971 and 2006. Pendergrass told the attentive live audience and thousands watching by television that Wake Up Everybody, the title tune of their most recent album, was intended to inspire people to take action with a goal to change America for the better.

“I’m sure that you will all agree that there are things that need to be done in this country today,” he said. “So, what I’d like for you to do is listen very carefully to see what you can do to lend a hand.”

The song’s appeal worked.

“I played that song over and over and over again because it was a constant warning to keep ourselves prepared for the society that we were living in,” says A. Peter Bailey, then a 37-year-old former aide to Malcolm X.

When “Wake Up Everybody” hit the airwaves, Bailey was working as an associate editor of Ebony Magazine. “It was a call to be aware of what we were dealing with in the country that we lived in, the world we lived in, the neighborhood we lived in, the cities that we lived in,” Bailey said in an interview with the Trice Edney News Wire.

He concluded that during Black Music Month 2026, such songs should be recalled and celebrated as a key to changes for the good across America; especially because such songs successfully encouraged people to deal with the issues that might otherwise denigrate the promises of America, including the promise that “All men are created equal,”as stated in the Declaration of Independence.

“The rhythms and blues expressed our joys, our sorrows and our fears,” Bailey recalls. “It was those songs and the singing of those songs by our people that attracted us to the campaigns for justice.”

With his life inspired by that song and others, Bailey, now 88, went on to establish and teach a Black Press class at Virginia Commonwealth University. Also, he has since written three books, including a memoir, “Witnessing Brother Malcolm X, the Master Teacher,” in which he expounded upon successful principles of social justice, some of which are reflected in “Wake Up Everybody.”

Long before the term “woke” became associated with campaigns for justice, Pendergrass led the song that reverberated across America and still holds deep meaning.

The ‘wake up’ call exhorts teachers to ‘teach a new way,’ doctors to heal elders, and builders to ‘build a new land… we can do it if we all lend a hand.”

The song concludes:

“The world won’t get no better if we just let it be. Naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw. The world won’t get no better. We gotta change it, yeah – just you and me.”

Hazel Trice Edney wrote this story as part of a four-part series powered by AARP in commemoration of Black Music Month, June 2026.