Last original Temptation still singing as musical ‘Ain’t Too Proud’ tells his story

For more than 60 years, Otis Willliams has been singing his way across the country, working in recording studios and sharing a story that has become part of pop music legend.

At 82, he’s still touring the country as the sole surviving original member of the top Motown group The Temptations, which keeps him busy about 25 to 40 weeks a year, He is joined by a changing rotation of other singers performing such hits as “My Girl,” “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” “Just My Imagination,” “The Way You Do The Things You Do” and “Get Ready.”

He’s the keeper of the flame of a group that was born in 1961 and survived numerous personnel changes, including lead vocalist. Williams told the story in his book “Temptations,” which became the basis for a TV miniseries. That book also provided inspiration for the Broadway  musical “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations,” which comes to Sarasota for  eight performances Feb. 21-25 at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall.

“I never had an inclination that my life story would go to the extent it has today,” Williams said in a telephone interview. “It’s been an interesting metamorphosis. I never imagined that this little country boy from Texarkana would ever have a musical about his life on Broadway.”

The musical, which opened in 2019, features a book by Dominique Morriseau “that tells a story that makes it so much more than just a jukebox musical,” said Michael Andreaus, who plays Williams in the touring production. “It’s a tremendous story. These men went through so many things. No one is a hero in this thing. That’s one of the things that makes the story so great. Every adult in the audience can relate to something these guys go through.”

And then there’s the music and the dancing. The Temptations were known for both, and Andreaus said the cast “had a Temptations boot camp where they taught us all the things that ground us in this world. There’s a style, a way of moving, the way you carry being a Temptation in your body.”

All of that is second nature to Williams, who moved to Detroit, where he joined friends in a number of different groups before forming the Elgins, which became The Temptations when the singers signed a contract with Motown in 1961.

Turning out the hits

With songwriters like Smokey Robinson and Norman Whitfield writing for them, they turned out hit after hit. “Most of the time the songs were just given to us, but who’s going to turn down the great Smokey Robinson,” Williams said. The label was creating the dominant sound in popular music.

Williams downplayed any supposed rivalry with another big Motown group, The Four Tops.

“That relationship was always wonderful,” Williams said. “We wanted to show our fans and the world we are the top dogs, just as the Four Tops wanted to show that they were. It was a healthy kind of family rivalry. We loved the Tops and got along famously.”

And they were recording different kinds of songs that expanded the reach of Motown. While Whitfield and Robinson focused on The Temptations (and other groups), the Tops had the writing team of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland, who also wrote many hits for The Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas and more..

The musical makes note of the rotating group of singers, but Andreaus wants to leave it a surprise for audiences to hear the actual numbers. It gave the group different sounds as different lead vocalists were heard until the arrival of David Ruffin in 1964. He stayed until 1968.

“With most groups, if you a lose a vocalist and entertainer like a David Ruffin, it’s over. You might as well pack it up,” Andreaus said. “But Otis’ vision was to never be dependent on one individual person. The group was always front and center, which gave it the ability to morph and change.”

Williams said the group’s best-known lead vocalists – Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks and the original leader Paul Bryant – “had such wonderful, distinctive voices. They were very identifiable. But the songs are so loved and so huge themselves, regardless who is singing them.”

In its review of the Broadway production, The New York Times said that despite the changing roster, “ultimately, though, it’s the music that’s the sole survivor. And that’s what’s being celebrated here – the collective miracle of a blissfully silken sound forged out of clashing egos, many misfires and life-wrecking hard work into numbers that keep playing in our memories.”

Williams said he tried to take “My Girl” out of the concert song list for a while, “but the audience called us every name but the child of God. ‘My Girl’ has become an American standard. I never imagined that Smokey would have given us the iconic feel it’s known for today.”

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A musical tour nears its end

Andreaus joined the national tour when it started in December 2021 and spent the first year playing Motown founder Berry Gordy and covering the role of Otis. A year ago, he took over playing Otis full time, which allows him to tell the story and speak directly to the audience.

The tour is ending with one more stop in New Orleans after Sarasota.

“It’s getting a little bittersweet,” Andreaus said. “It’s such a great story to tell and getting to transport people through the time with music across the country has been every bit of what I hoped it would. On top of that, it’s just the wonderful people I get to work with, everybody is so professional and talented and so kind on and off the stage.”

He has no specific plans for after the March 3, but is working on developing some projects he is creating. Mostly he’s looking forward to some rest. “I’m going to get off my feet and rest a while and then get back in the grind of auditioning.”

In the meantime, Williams will probably be out there somewhere touring with the real Temptations, keeping the music he helped introduce alive to longtime fans and younger audiences discovering it for the first time.

‘Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations’

Book by Dominique Morisseau, directed by Des McAnuff, choreographed by Sergio Trujillo. Runs Feb. 21-25, an Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. $45-$125. 941-263-6799; vanwezel.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: ‘Ain’t Too Proud’ brings story and hits of The Temptations to Sarasota