Ain't Too Proud Casts The Temptations and More for Second National Tour

Casting is complete for the second national tour of Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations. The tour will officially launch on September 19 at the Clemens Center in Elmira, NY, before continuing to more than 50 cities across North America including Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and Detroit, the hometown of Motown, where the group’s story began. (The venue for the Detroit stop, the Fox Theatre, hosted The Temptations in concert in 1988.) The full list of cities and tour dates are available on the show's website.

Leading the cast as The Temptations are Jameson Clanton as Melvin Franklin, Rudy Foster as Otis Williams, Lowes Moore as Eddie Kendricks, Josiah Travis Kent Rogers as David Ruffin and Bryce Valle as Paul Williams. The touring company also features Jasmine Barboa, Tiffany Beckford, Cai Campbell, Robert Crenshaw, Kaila Symone Crowder, Kerry D'Jovanni, Reyanna Edwards, Cedric Jamaal Greene, Mikey Corey Hassel, Max Herskovitz, Bernell Lassai III, Corey Mekell, Zion Middleton, Jamal Stone, Robert J. Valderas III and J’Khalil White.

Ain’t Too Proud features a Tony Award-nominated book by Dominique Morisseau and a score comprising such hits as "My Girl", "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone." Two-time Tony Award winner Des McAnuff directs with Tony Award-winning choreography by Sergio Trujillo. The musical opened on Broadway on March 21, 2019 and was nominated for 12 Tony Awards including Best Musical.

A story of brotherhood, family, loyalty and betrayal, Ain’t Too Proud follows the legendary Motown vocal group’s extraordinary journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. With their signature dance moves and unmistakable harmonies, they rose to the top of the charts creating an amazing 42 Top Ten Hits with 14 reaching number one. The rest is history—how they met, the groundbreaking heights they hit, and how personal and political conflicts threatened to tear the group apart as the United States fell into civil unrest.

The creative team also includes Tony Award nominee Robert Brill (scenic design), Sue Makkoo (costume design) and Tony Award winner Paul Tazewell (original costume design), Ryan O’Gara (lighting design), Jeff Human (sound design), Drama Desk Award winner Peter Nigrini (projection design), Ashley Rae Callahan (hair and wig design) and Drama Desk Award winner Charles G. LaPointe (original hair and wig design), Steve Rankin (fight direction), Brian Harlan Brooks (tour resident director), Brett M. Lockley (associate choreographer), Rick Hip-Flores (music supervisor), and Kelsey Nicole Jenkins (production stage manager). Orchestrations are by Tony Award recipient Harold Wheeler, with music arrangements by Kenny Seymour.