It has been a few years since the music of the Temptations, the Miracles, and the Contours blared out of every car in America, but the music of Motown lives on in movies, commercials, and in a new holiday show that hits the Lake Michigan College Mendel Center Mainstage at 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 18.
A Motown Christmas celebrates the music and the magic of Motown and features an all-star line-up of vocalists and musicians assembled from the ranks of the Contours, the Miracles, and former members of the Temptations. The performers, collectively known as The Motortown All-Stars, have each paid their dues performing with Motown legends on stages around the world. For over a decade, the group’s founder, Glen Raby, served as the musical director for the Contours who hit the charts with “Do You Love Me” in 1962 and again in 1988 thanks to “Dirty Dancing.”
“This music is timeless. It isn’t defined by any year or any decade for that matter. Even little kids know the songs ‘My Girl,’ ‘Get Ready,’ and ‘Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.’ Those songs will live forever,” Raby said.
The holiday concert promises to burst with everything that made Motown great, from impeccable harmonies and dazzling choreography to flashy outfits and those instantly-recognizable grooves that everyone knows and loves.
The audience will hear the Motor City hits they know and love, as well as holiday classics like "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and "Silent Night" performed in that inimitable Motown style. Accompanying the Detroit-based vocal group will be a live band and brass section, adding yet another level of excitement to those classic arrangements.
"Each time we bring the Motortown All-Stars to the Mendel Center, the audience grows and grows," said Joseph Mirrione of Praia Entertainment Group, the show’s promoter. "People of all ages just can’t get enough of this music. The children of the ‘60s love to reminisce about a time in their lives when they knew every word to every song on the radio, and we’ve purposely kept the ticket prices reasonable so they can bring their kids and grandkids, too!"
Tickets start at $25 and can be purchased at www.TheMendelCenter.com/events, by calling 269-927-8700, option 1, or by visiting the Mendel Center box office in person. The box office is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
About The Mendel Center at Lake Michigan College
The Mendel Center raised the curtain on its first Mainstage season performance in the fall of 1992. Since that time, it has presented Mainstage season performances to more than half a million patrons in the 1,559-seat Mendel Center Mainstage Theatre. Grand Upton Hall, first opened in 1979 and fully renovated in 2019, is a 13,700-square-foot venue serving the community as the host site for meetings, banquets, trade shows, weddings, and other celebrations. The 229-seat Hanson Theatre, which was renovated in 2020, is home to the Lake Michigan College Visual & Performing Arts Departments as well as a variety of Mendel Center and community events.
The Mendel Center is 30 minutes from Niles and 40 minutes from the Kalamazoo and South Bend areas. It is located on the Lake Michigan College campus at 2755 E. Napier Avenue, Benton Harbor, Michigan, one mile east of I-94 (Exit 30) and one mile west of the US 31 Bypass (exit 24). Its GPS mapping address is 1100 Yore Avenue, Benton Harbor, MI.
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Posted November 02, 2022