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In ‘Motown: The Musical,’ Gordy captures his life on stage

Clifton Oliver plays Berry Gordy Jr. in “Motown: The Musical.”Joan Marcus

Stop for a moment and try to imagine a world without the music of Motown.

That would mean a world without Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Temptations, the Four Tops, and Lionel Richie and the Commodores, to name a fraction of the artists whose music the world came to know, love, dance to, and bond over.

Berry Gordy.West Grand Media

Think about the hundreds of songs that might never have been heard and shared by people of all races — “What’s Going On,” “The Tracks of My Tears,” “Brick House,” “I Want You Back,” “Dancing in the Street,” “My Girl.”

Luckily, we don’t have to live in that world.

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“Motown: The Musical,” a touring production of the Broadway show that opens for a three-week run at the Opera House on Tuesday, attempts to tell the tale of the storied record label through the eyes of the man who founded it, Berry Gordy Jr.

“The hardest challenge was deciding on how to tell so much in such a short amount of time,” says Gordy, on the phone from Los Angeles.

Having produced music, film, and television over the years, “Broadway was just the last step for me because we had done everything else,” he says.

Gordy was encouraged to mount the production by friends and fellow record moguls, David Geffen and Doug Morris, the latter of whom serves as a producer of the show. “ ‘You better do a story about your life that’s true, otherwise everybody in the world is going to be doing Motown-like things,’ ” Gordy remembers Geffen, one of the producers of “Dreamgirls,” telling him.

“You look at Brian Epstein, and he’s considered a genius because he found and promoted the Beatles,” says “Motown” producer Kevin McCollum, “and then you look at Berry Gordy Jr., OK? It just doesn’t end.”

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So Gordy sat down five years ago and began to envision what Hitsville, USA, would look like on the Great White Way. “When I went to Broadway, they were trying to find out, ‘How are you going to Broadway-ize Motown?’ ” says Gordy. “And so I said, ‘I’m not going to Broadway-ize Motown. I’m going to bring Motown to Broadway.’ ”

And he did, writing the musical’s book to tell his own story and crafting a trio of new songs to augment the dozens of songs and snippets from the label’s catalog.

“I always believe that if you tell the truth in an entertaining way, you’ll win,” says Gordy, now 85 and in no apparent rush to retire.

In Gordy’s case that means the whole truth, as “Motown” celebrates not only his and the label’s triumphs but also casts a light on his shortcomings. Gordy wrote in his flaws: his competitive and controlling nature, his stubbornness and perfectionism, and how that drove some artists away. He even reveals more intimate matters, including a bout of performance anxiety one night in bed with former paramour Diana Ross. “I’m glad you said one night in bed, because we had a daughter after that,” he said laughing, when asked about the episode.

“Life is life and people are people, and I am a normal person. Obviously other people have to have the same experiences,” says Gordy of his warts-and-all approach.

That love story is at the heart of the show, and Gordy says Ross, whom he did not consult, was moved by it, as were other Motown artists who came to see the show in New York, which premiered in April 2013, or on the national tour.

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“When they came to the show, they were just thrilled to see their lives portrayed the way it was, the good and the bad,” says Gordy.

Gordy admits that there was something a bit surreal about casting actors to play himself, Ross, and the other artists. “It was quite interesting, a lot of déjà vu.”

But he rhapsodizes about working with the Broadway cast and the members of the touring company, including Clifton Oliver as Gordy. It has all taken him back to the early days of the record label, when he put artists through their paces in the studio, had them learn choreography, and sent them off to Motown’s charm school. “With all of my people I had to start from scratch,” he says with a laugh.

Not so in theater. “In the music business the people all came in — from Michael, Smokey, Diana — all of them were inexperienced teenagers,” says Gordy. “The actors for the show were more seasoned and they had training, and so, to me it was heaven because I didn’t have to teach them how to love one another, how to feel camaraderie, how to move, and how to be confident. So I was like a kid in a candy store with these people who could dance and sing and read the script and put themselves in there. And when they were off beat, I could say, ‘Well no, that’s not really me, that’s not what I would think.’ ”

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Krisha Marcano, Allison Semmes, and Trisha Jeffrey as the Supremes.Joan Marcus

Gordy is indeed very involved, says Jesse Nager, a Somerville native who played Eddie Kendricks of the Temptations in the original Broadway cast, and comes to the Opera House in the role of Smokey Robinson.

“Two days ago we got line changes in the show,” says Nager, laughing about Gordy’s perfectionism. “With a recording you can’t really change it once it’s been released, but with our show, because it’s living and breathing, there are always changes.”

The cast welcomes his involvement, says Nager, who still can’t believe that Gordy attended the early auditions, something even directors don’t always do. “He loves discovering talent and nurturing young artists.

“He would tell us stories and a hush would come over the room, and his insight and knowledge helped shape not only the performances but us as performers. He would always have these little nuggets of information. We love that and try to do him proud.”

Berry Gordy.Motown The Musical

Nager himself is living proof of the power of Motown; its music marked the beginning of his own career path. “I was always dancing around the house to the Jackson 5, and that’s what prompted me to ask my mother for dance lessons, and for my mother to say ‘Why not?’ ”

This is the kind of story Gordy has been told countless times, of people being influenced by Motown, and he never tires of hearing it.

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There is one notable deviation in the show from Gordy’s life. His character in the musical sings quite a bit, even though Gordy himself doesn’t consider himself much of a vocalist.

“I am a mixture between Frank Sinatra, Nat ‘King’ Cole, and Donald Duck,” he says with a laugh. “And usually I am more like the latter.”

Fortunately, he found a few other people who could sing.


Sarah Rodman can be reached at srodman@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @GlobeRodman.