ML - Michigan Avenue

2014 - Issue 3 - May/June

Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!

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"It's very important that we give back to Chicago the love they've given throughout the years." BERRY GORDY FROM TOP: Randolph- Wright and Gordy are health-conscious eaters, but they still enjoy wine with their dinner, which included a carrot nage in vacuum with fingerling potatoes and cashews. because it was the first film—actually the only film—that I ever directed. CRW: We premiered [Motown the Musical] in New York, but what he talked about often was that we'd go to other cities. Chicago being the first place is so important because we set up the tour—we set up what people around the country will see, and what they want to hear. It's a real responsibility. [Sequoia Grove 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon is served.] BG: Det roit wa s t he key to so ma ny t h ings, but Chicago was also another key, so opening the show here is incredible. And I guess we're selfish, too, a lit- tle bit, because we know Chicago people are going to love the theater as well! CRW: [Laughs] It makes life a little bit easier. BG: It's very important that we give back to Chicago the love they've given throughout the years. The first black company that inspired me when I was an inde- pendent producer was Vee-Jay Records. Ewart Abner, who became my president, was from Chicago, and I admired him more than anyone. There are a lot of reasons, emotionally, that we want to come here. CRW: In the city where Johnson publications were handled... BG: See, there's so much stuff! [Laughs] We got our first covers with [ Johnson Publishing Company]. They just honored me in New York with a lifetime achieve- ment award, and I showed the Ebony cover of The Supremes. It was the first cover we ever had. How did you both become vegan? BG: I [became] vegan about 10 years ago. I believe in preventative main- tenance. I drink wine, but I believe in a healthy lifestyle. I started being vegan because I didn't really eat meat, and I wanted to eat food that I like. CRW: I'm what I call "veganish" because I grew up in South Carolina, so it's impossible to go home and be vegan because everything is fried with cheese sauce. They think, "Oh, we made you some vegetables," and it has bacon fat in it. [ Laughs] Once in a while I'll have f ish or chicken if it's organic, but with him it's great because we eat the same. And look at him! BG: I'm lucky because I've got people that have studied how to make vegan food really tasty. When I'm home, I buy vegan food as a gourmet meal: artichokes that are roasted with pepper.... CRW: I love that we're talking about this. As a director, what's it like to tell Berry Gordy's story? CRW: As he says, "The truth is a hit." I knew that the show had to be hon- est, but it also had to enable audiences to take their own journey of the Berry Gordy character. Everyone from Motown has a version of how it happened, and this is the Berry Gordy version. But what happens nightly in New York, and I feel will happen here, is that audiences come in with this predisposition for this music. It's in their DNA. They live it again. There's so many things that happen in this show, and our job together was to find "How do you tell that in an evening that's two and a half hours?" 'Cause it could have been 10. BG: We fought and we laughed and cried, lived and died to make Motown what it is today. And I'm so grateful to the artists, but when they came to opening night, Diana [Ross] was cr ying, Mar y Wilson was cr ying, and Smokey, and all the people for once were so relieved that they could see a story they were part of. We just told the truth. Holland-Dozier came and said, "Boy, I didn't know you were going to just tell it like it was. Were we that bad?" [Laughs] CRW: I look at the show as the next extension of Motown. It's "Hitsville USA is now on Broadway" and "Hitsville USA is opening in Chicago." Did you approach the show's original songs, like "Can I Close the Door," differently from your existing Motown portfolio? BG: No, it's the same simple process: How do people feel? "To Be Loved": I went to my sister's house and she took me in—I was a bum, my wife had kicked me out, I had three kids, and I quit my job. I wanted to follow my dream. I was trying to get [my sister] to really understand, but it was no ques- tion: "You're not a good husband, but you're a great brother; let me fix you something to eat." I had tears in my eyes, and I sat at her piano and I made up the song: "Someone to care/Someone to share/ Lonely hours/And moments of despair/ To be loved, to be loved/Oh, what a feeling/ To be loved"— CRW: "Some wish to be a king or a queen." BG: See, you know it better than me. [Laughs] MA continued from page 104 106 MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM ON THE TOWN 104-106_MA_ST_OTT_May-June_14.indd 106 4/14/14 1:56 PM

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