Buzz about "Motown the Musical" buids in New York, where opening day is two weeks from Sunday,
Headlines report sold-out previews, $1 million in first-week sales and celebrity audience members such as Aretha Franklin.
Now the Wall Street Journal joins in with a slick video (below) about the show's music, with reporter Pia Catton interviewing music supervisor Ethan Popp at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on 46th Street in the Times Square district.
He describes how a few familiar hits are adjusted to add dance breaks or to support dramatic moments, such as a Berry Gordy-Diana Ross lip lock. Mostly, what ticket buyers hear from actors and a 19-piece orchestra is pretty much what played on AM radio in the 1960s and later.
"The songs are so theatrical in their own nature and they have strings, they have horns, that a lot of the stuff was already there," the young arranger tells Catton..
