Review: Dancing In The Streets, The Orchard Theatre, Dartford, Tuesday, April 3.

By Keith Hunt

It was more dancing in the seats than Dancing in the Streets when The Four Tops, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and many other Tamla Motown greats hit Dartford this week.

Not, of course, the real ones but this fabulous show is no tame tribute show and transports us right back to that golden music era of the 60s that spawned some of the biggest names in the business.

The opening night at the Orchard Theatre was a delight from the eye-popping start to the barnstorming River Deep Mountain High finish. Motown, so called because it was founded in the motor city of Detroit in 1959 by Berry Gordy Jr, burst into life before our very eyes.

Directed by Ivor Novello award winner Keith Strachan, there is no flimsy plot woven around the music. Instead, West End musicals veteran Ray Shell provides wise-cracking, fact-filled links to the acts and also shows what a great soul voice he has himself.

Shell makes a point of telling us that the black folk on stage start on time and that those coming in the door late will be white. He also builds up a saucy rapport with the audience and throws in some ad libs.

In some tribute shows the voices area spot on and the look-alikes are dodgy. In Dancing in the Streets, the 11-strong all-black cast, backed a little paradoxically by tip-top all-white musicians, are all-dancing, all-singing doppelgangers.

The energetic choreography may look cheesy and anachronistic as the dance routines of groups like The Temptations and The Supremes are recreated but the coordination is slick and brings a smile to the face.

So versatile is the cast that solo singers and backing singers interchange. One moment Nathaniel Morrison is a perfect Stevie Wonder, complete with sunglasses and the legendary singer's mannerisms, the next he is in the background in another guise. The singer playing Diana Ross in a big curly wig is also a dead-ringer.

Each song created in the Motown Hitsville studio is applauded. Baby Love, Reach Out, I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Bernadette, My Girl, Tears of a Clown, Endless Love - the list is also endless.

Those in the audience were clearly there to have a good time and nothing would have stopped them getting to their feet and singing and clapping along for the final part of the show.

If you are a Motown fan, you will want to echo the words of Reach Out and say "I'll be there."

Dancing In The Streets is at the Orchard Theatre until Saturday April 7.