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For the entire month of March, WBLS is highlighting, “Women Making History.” This week we’re recognizing playwright and actress, Dominique Morisseau. The Detroit native is an accomplished author, who has written over nine plays and is a recipient of the 2018 MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant.
Morisseau has recently written the script for the play, Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations. The Broadway show, whch opened March 2019, tells us the story of the legendary, group’s success and struggles as Motown Records artists, five decades ago.
The play earned a number of great reviews from critics who gave the script much praise. Washington Post reviewer Peter Marks says “This electrifying musical proves to be two or three cuts above the standard-issue anthology pop musical.” He salutes “writer Dominique Morriseau’s dexterity at conveying each member’s journey.”
Dominique Morisseau’s is only the second black woman to write a Broadway musical script. The first being Vinnette Carroll, a Tony-nominated creator and director of the play Your Arms Too Short to Box with God, in 1976.
The new show is based on Temptations, a 1988 memoir by Otis Williams, the last surviving member of the vocal group. Morisseau had a chance to spend time with him and told Jonathan Mandell, of a New York theater industry site, that she “felt like they connected.”