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    'I Lived Through All That?': The Temptations Musical Hits The High And The Low Notes

    The memoir of the Motown group's co-founder, Otis Williams, plays out in Ain't Too Proud. Although the successes of the fractious group came at a cost, Williams says the power of their music lives on.
    by Michel Martin Jun 30, 2018 5 minutes
    Ephraim Sykes, Jawan Jackson, Jeremy Pope, Derrick Baskin and James Harkness, star as the original members of The Temptations, in Berkeley Repertory Theatre's production of <em>Ain't Too Proud</em>,<em> </em>now playing at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

    With their signature harmonies, tight choreography and flashy outfits, The Temptations helped define the Motown sound.

    Lesser known is what the five young men from Detroit had to sacrifice to get there. A new musical, appropriately titled Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, chronicles the tumultuous journey of the Motown group. Behind their chart-topping hits and smooth melodies, the original group's climb to globetrotting superstardom was fraught with departures, deaths and ego during a turbulent 1960s America.

    But the quintet's one constant was its co-founder and sole surviving member, Otis Williams. The production, now at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., before it hits Broadway, is based on Williams' memoir and authored by award-winning playwright and Detroit-native Dominique Morisseau.

    Williams, "the glue" of the

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