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“Ain’t Too Proud” rehearses at Proctors ahead of tour – The Daily Gazette

 


Broadway could return to Schenectady’s audience next week, but it’s been at Proctors for a few weeks as the Tony Award-winning musical Aint Too Proud hosted technical rehearsals for its first touring production.

For actor and musician Elijah Ahmad Lewis, who plays David Ruffin, working at the Schenectady Theater is not new territory.

This is my fourth time at Proctors, said Lewis. We were here twice with Motown, I also did another show here. . . it’s always a crazy feeling to come back to a city but i always had a great time here.

Lewis grew up surrounded by music (his father worked as a producer and they had a home studio). He started singing and performing at a young age and his acting credits include the popular off-Broadway production Mama, I Want to Sing, as well as Broadways Motown The Musical and Aint Too Proud: The Life and Times of The. Temptations, for which he was a main reserve for David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks and Otis Williams. He was with the show when Broadway closed last year.

It was pretty hard. It was like you had the wind in your sails, Lewis said. One evening, you do a show, you come home and the next day you get a message from your manager saying “Hey, you’re waiting for the shows”. Well be in touch with you but for now weren’t working. To get this message across. . . It was almost like having a loss. It is your livelihood. We do eight shows a week. You see most of your actors sometimes more than your actual family.

At the same time, the shutdown shed light on just how much Broadway has been missing.

It was Broadway’s first major shutdown. You got to see how much of an impact Broadway has on New York City because all of downtown was dead. It was like tumbleweed, Lewis said.

After months of hiatus, he finally learned earlier this year that productions would pick up and picked up where he left off, but this time he landed his first lead role in the union, playing David Ruffin in the touring production of Aint Too Proud.

The interesting thing was, normally, while the Broadway shows are on Broadway, the tour comes out. But this was the first time the Broadway shows had returned and the tours had been held at the same time. Lots of shows were preparing for doubles, Lewis said.

Aint Too Proud reopened on Broadway on October 16. The touring production began rehearsals shortly thereafter in New York City. The cast started rehearsing at Schenectady last week, though crew members had arrived earlier, working on directing, lights, and more. They should continue reps at Proctors throughout the week.

This show is amazing, Lewis said. It tells the stories of these five black men who loved music and had a passion for music and who lived through a time when it was not easy to be recognized in what you did. That the Temptations do what they did and become the number one rhythm and blues band is pretty amazing.

It’s packed with classic hits like If I Could Build My Whole World Around You, Papa Was a Rollin Stone and, of course, Aint Too Proud to Beg.
However, Lewis points out that this isn’t necessarily a jukebox musical.

Dominique Morisseau wrote this book with so much eloquence and poetry and I say that [with] this show you get a mix of a concert with a movie and a play at the same time. The way they directed this is so cinematic that they were doing a lot of unconventional things that aren’t normally done on Broadway. We have so many lights and set changes. . . I want people to remember that this is a real story told. It’s more than music, Lewis said.

While at Proctors, they made a few changes from the original production.

There are some modifications. We have to make sure we get this amazing backdrop in every theater that we can so there is a little manipulation but we have stuck with the design that our design team graciously put together from lighting to sound to decor, even at our screenings, Lewis mentioned.

The Aint Too Proud Tour begins in Durham, NC on December 7. A date in the Capital Region has yet to be announced, however, it is slated for Boston from April 19 to May 1 and Buffalo from May 10 to 15.

I think that’s one thing I love about touring, is being able to reach so many people at the same time. Unfortunately, not everyone can make it to Broadway. We would love that, but just being able to bring it out just so people can see it, that’s really good. Theater is like medicine, music is medicine [its] so something we all need, said Lewis.

Prior to Aint Too Proud’s arrival, Hadestown hosted technical rehearsals at Proctors in September. It’s slated to perform in the theater in 2023. Here’s a look at other productions heading to Proctors in the coming months: Summer: The Donna Summer Musical December 7-12, Come from Away January 25-30, for rent: 25th Anniversary Farewell Tour, February 11-12, Waitress, February 25-27, The Prom, March 1-6, Dear Evan Hansen, March 22-27, Cats, May 3-8, My Fair Lady, May 17 -22, Harper Lees Too Kill a Mockingbird, June 14-19, Mean Girls, June 28-July 3. For more information, visit proctors.org.

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