Berry Gordy

AZ Anoints Himself Brooklyn's Greatest Rapper Ever (Also Enjoyed The Motown Musical)

Editor's note: In "Tweets Is Watching," Phillip Mlynar asks local artists questions based solely on the contents of their Twitter timeline. AZ is gearing up to release his Doe Or Die II album on the world later this summer. One of the songs to be revealed so far is the emotive "We Movin'," which wa ... More >>

The Guy Who Plays Smokey Robinson

Charl Brown is nominated for a Tony for playing singer/songwriter Smokey Robinson in Motown: The Musical. He's great in the part--convincing as Smokey, yet bringing his own stuff to it the way good interpreters do. At a Tony nominees' event, Brown (Jersey Boys, Sister Act) told me the casting makes ... More >>

Tom Hanks Tells Me What People Do To Him On The Subway

Here's all the chatter from Broadway's nominees

Motown and The Rascals: Jukebox Mausoleum

Boomers Turn Broadway into a Pop-Music Scrapbook

Erectile Dysfunction Is Big On Broadway This Year

It takes three instances of something to make a trend, and I've got 'em! Here comes a trio of wilting manhoods, all on the Broadway stages this very season. In Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Nick--the young house guest--has a raunchy flirtation with the blowsy earth mother Martha, but he's too dr ... More >>

Diana Ross Went To See Motown: The Musical?

Luscious legend Diana Ross went to the Broadway opening of Motown The Musical last night, and I have to say when I heard that, I had to stop in the name of love for a second and think about it. I'm surprised Di's gotten aboard this soul train! After all, Diana can be prickly about anything involvin ... More >>

Motown The Musical Opens: My Review

An air-tight revue with classic songs presented as theatrical set pieces, with a minimum of superficial chatter in between them. That's not what Motown The Musical is. Instead, the story of how Berry Gordy Jr. created a dazzling black sound that managed to be upbeat, despairing, and socially relevan ... More >>

Watch Out, Jason Gould! Another Superstar's Offspring Is Taking The Stage!

And this one isn't singing with her mother. "Rhonda Ross, the only daughter of legendary superstars Diana Ross and business mogul Berry Gordy, performs refreshing, emotive, jazz-inspired songs demonstrating 'the apple don't fall far from the tree'."

A Sneak Peek At Motown The Musical

I have sat through jukebox shows with music by everyone from Bob Dylan to the Beach Boys while wondering, "When's there going to be a Motown one already?" And now there's finally one coming for next March, and it's actually more than just a jukebox show; it mixes in the songs while telling the stor ... More >>

Guess Who's Playing Diana Ross?

No, not me. I already did that in the '80s as lead singer of my Motown cover band (which let's not tell anyone about or they might want royalties, OK?) It's Valisia LeKae, who will assume the role of the great Diana Ross in the Broadway show Motown: The Musical, based on Motown creator Berry Gordy ... More >>

My Thoughts On New Motown Show Quoted In Daily News

I told you right here about the Broadway show Berry Gordy is planning, featuring his life story interspersed with scads of fabulous Motown hits. Well, the New York Daily News addressed the show today, and asked me for my input, so I told them I had a cover band for years and am literally obsessed w ... More >>

Motown The Musical Is Coming! Come And Get These Memories

In my column about theater last year, I bemoaned the fact that there have been jukebox musicals about everything except the one I want to see--Motown! Well, it's finally coming. Berry Gordy Jr. is planning a show called Motown which will tell his story while sprinkling in the Motown hits of the da ... More >>

100 & Single: Rihanna's Post-Millennial Strategy For Setting Chart Records

​Pop-chart record-keeping can be as contentious as baseball's, and we've got quite the steroids-style asterisk forming atop Billboard's Hot 100. On the most recent chart, the most pervasive radio star of the last half-decade brushed past a couple of legends into the hall of fame. And like Barr ... More >>

Radio Hits One: The Always Exciting, Sometimes Difficult Climb Back To The Top Of The Charts

Following up a hit song, especially a big chart-topping hit, can be one of the best moments in a pop act's career. But it's also one of the most difficult; you could be Katy Perry, scoring five No. 1s in a row, or you could be Daniel Powter, who missed the Hot 100 entirely with the follow-up to "Bad ... More >>

Live: LMFAO Cause Panda-Monium At Pier 36

​ LMFAO w/Swizz Beatz Pier 36 Thursday, August 11 Better than: Watching the new episode of Jersey Shore. It was a beautiful coincidence that LMFAO, holders of the No. 1 song on Billboard's Hot 100 for most of the summer of 2011, headlined the trade publication's end-of-summer blowout at Pier ... More >>

Live: Cults Flirt With The Crowd At Music Hall Of Williamsburg

Benjamin Lozovsky​ Cults Music Hall of Williamsburg Thursday, June 9 Better than: Getting struck by lightning while waiting out the Black Eyed Peas rain delay. It wasn't until midway through Cults' homecoming show, when Madeline Follin fervently swayed and sashayed along with "You Know What ... More >>

American Idol, Season 10, "Idols" Week: Ryan Adams Shout-Outs And Soaring Volcanoes

Please, Jacob Lusk, stick around as long as possible. CREDIT: Ray Mickshaw/FOX.​This was the first week we really got to see a lot of Interscope honcho Jimmy Iovine, whose role on American Idol is supposedly to mentor all the kids, but it's already clear he's only going to show up for five-min ... More >>

Farewell Teena Marie, Dead at 54

​Her songs were part of the DNA of both rap and anyone who grew up in the '80s, she was powerful enough to hold down her end of a long musical relationship with a man no less freaky than Rick James, and she took a legendarily goofy guitar-pose photo. Teena Marie called herself the "Ivory Queen ... More >>

Live: Diddy Holds Forth on Biggie, Mary (The Biblical One), and His Own Ambition at 92Y Tribeca

​Shout-out to all the Scorpios in the house. Pics by Ken Goodman.​The question: "What's your favorite non-hip-hop pursuit?" Diddy's answer, after a meaningful, somewhat bewildered pause: "happiness."

Michael Jackson and the Endless Summer of Death

What the King of Pop left behind, and what he took with him

Live Blogging the Michael Jackson Memorial

Live Video streaming by Ustream For all the lovely grace notes, homages, and eulogies that have flowed from any number of erudite and compassionate individuals in the wake of Michael Jackson's untimely death at the young age of 50, a celebrity's death is not over in American until the huge, gaudy, ... More >>

MJ in LA Update

Latifah said, "I'm here to represent millions of fans who loved Michael... all of you." She reads a Maya Angelou poem, "We had him," composed for the occasion: "Beloveds, now we know that we know nothing/Now that our bright and shining star can slip away from our fingertips like a puff of summer win ... More >>

Jackson Memorial Worthy of a Master Showman

The Michael Jackson all-star memorial concert at the Staples Center was so riveting I expected Michael to pop out of the shiny, silver coffin and do one last moonwalk. Janet and LaToya really turned it out fashionwise (and dignity-wise); old-time Motown legends like Berry Gordy, Stevie Wonder, and S ... More >>

Michael Jackson: The Man in Our Mirror

Black America's eulogies for the King of Pop also let us resurrect his best self

From the Voice Archives: Robert Christgau on the Mass Culture Spectacle of Michael Jackson in 1984

In honor of Michael Jackson, we're raiding our archives. Here's Robert Christgau's titanic 1984 piece on arena rock, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson and the complicated place where all three meet. Working the Crowd By Robert Christgau August 21,1984 If you'd told me five years ago that I'd will ... More >>

From the Voice Archives: Greg Tate on Michael Jackson in 1987

In honor of Michael Jackson, we're raiding our archives. Here's Greg Tate on what's wrong with Michael Jackson in 1987. It ran side by side with a piece on the same topic by Guy Trebay. I'm White! By Greg Tate September 22, 1987 There are other ways to read Michael Jackson's blanched skin and di ... More >>

Ow American Idol Top 10: Scott is Still Cheesy, Adam Gets Sensitive, Allison Shows Her Fuck Side

Sharyn Jackson is your American Idol host for season eight. This week: the Top 10! all photos by Michael Becker / FOXAdam Lambert, slicked back hair It feels like months have gone by since I last watched Idol. That's because we were pre-empted Tuesday for one reason or another. It's all a bit diso ... More >>

Levi Stubbs: Mourning the Voice of Little Shop of Horrors

Things I Learned Watching Dreamgirls

Dream Works

But it's not perfect. Jennifer Hudson nails it, as a well-worn tale struggles to transcend the Ray model

Latin Swing's Last Lion

Johnny Pacheco Returns To The New York His Salsa Once Changed

Wearing the Melancholy

This Dungeon's for Hire, Even If We're Just Dancing in the Darkwave

It's a Sin

The 'Bad Boy Curse'

The Perils of Hanging With Puffy

Reverse Crossover