Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. was an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter, and musician. He helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of successes, which earned him the nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul".
Berry Gordy III, also known as Berry Gordy Jr., is an American retired record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record label and its subsidiaries, which was the highest-earning African-American business for decades.
Marvin Frederick Hamlisch was an American composer and conductor. He is one of a handful of people to win Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards, a feat dubbed the "EGOT". He and composer Richard Rodgers are the only people to have won those prizes and a Pulitzer Prize ("PEGOT").
James Ambrose Johnson Jr., better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, James began his musical career in his teenage years. He was in various bands before entering the U.S. Navy Reserve to avoid being drafted into the army. In 1964, James moved to Toronto, Canada, where he formed the rock band The Mynah Birds, who eventually signed a recording deal with Motown Records in 1966. James's career with the group halted after military authorities discovered his whereabouts and eventually convicted him of desertion related charges. He served several months in jail. After being released, James moved to California, where he started a variety of rock and funk groups in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Idina Kim Menzel is an American actress and singer. Particularly known for her work in musicals on Broadway, she has been nicknamed the "Queen of Broadway" for her commanding stage presence, powerful mezzo-soprano, and reputation as one of the most influential stage actors of her generation. Having achieved mainstream success across stage, screen, and music, her accolades include an American Music Award, a Billboard Music Award, a Daytime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for three Drama League Awards, and four Drama Desk Awards. In 2019, Menzel received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was named a Disney Legend in 2022. Menzel received a honorary doctorate from University of Pennsylvania in 2023.
Jesse Lamont Martin is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his role of Tom Collins on Broadway in the musical Rent and performed on television as NYPD Detective Ed Green on Law & Order, Captain Joe West on The Flash, and professor Alec Mercer on The Irrational.
Mark Alexander Knox, better known as Flex Alexander or Flex, is an American actor, comedian and dancer. He began his career while appearing on numerous of television sitcoms before portraying single father Flex Washington on the UPN sitcom One on One (2001–2006). Alexander also had a number of roles in many films including Modern Vampires (1998), The Force (1999), Out Cold (2001), Book of Love: The Definitive Reason Why Men Are Dogs (2002), Gas (2004), Snakes on a Plane (2006), and Trigger (2020).
Two Can Play That Game is a 2001 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Mark Brown and starring Vivica A. Fox and Morris Chestnut, with Anthony Anderson, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Tamala Jones, Bobby Brown, and Gabrielle Union in supporting roles. The film was released on September 7, 2001, received generally unfavorable reviews from critics, and grossed $22 million against a $13 million budget.
Little Shop of Horrors is a horror comedy rock musical with music by Alan Menken and lyrics and a book by Howard Ashman. The story follows a hapless florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh. The musical is loosely based on the low-budget 1960 black comedy film The Little Shop of Horrors. The music, composed by Menken in the style of early 1960s rock and roll, doo-wop and early Motown, includes several well-known tunes, including the title song, "Skid Row (Downtown)", "Somewhere That's Green", and "Suddenly, Seymour".
Andrew Scott Rannells is an American actor. He is best known for originating the role of Elder Kevin Price in the 2011 Broadway musical The Book of Mormon, for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical and won the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. He received his second Tony nomination in 2017 for his performance as Whizzer in the 2016 Broadway revival of Falsettos. Other Broadway credits include Hairspray (2005), Jersey Boys (2009), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2014), Hamilton (2015), The Boys in the Band (2018), and Gutenberg! The Musical! (2023). For his performance in the Off West End production of Tammy Faye, he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award.
Darrin Dewitt Henson is an American choreographer, dancer, actor, and producer. Hensen was a brief member of freestyle music 1980s group Trilogy and was featured on their single "Good Time". He worked as a choreographer for various artists and received the 2000 MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography for "Bye Bye Bye" by NSYNC.
Joanna Ampil is a musical theatre and film actress from the Philippines and United Kingdom.
Sierra Marjory Boggess is an American theater actress, singer, and figure skater.
Mama, I Want to Sing! is a 2012 musical drama film starring Ciara, written and directed by Charles Randolph-Wright, an adaptation of the 1983 off-Broadway gospel stage musical of the same name written and produced by Vy Higginsen and Ken Wydro. It was the final film produced by Fox Faith prior to its dissolving.
Gordon Banks was an American guitarist, producer, writer and musical director. He was voted one of the top 100 guitarists in America by Rolling Stone magazine in 1985.
Motown: The Musical is a jukebox musical that premiered on Broadway in April 2013. The musical is based on Berry Gordy's autobiography To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown (1994), and on the history of his founding and running of the Motown record label, and his personal and professional relationships with Motown artists such as Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, and Michael Jackson. The production's music and lyrics are taken from selections from the Motown catalog. It received four nominations at the 67th Tony Awards.
Ronald Edward "Rahn" Coleman is an American record producer, musical director, arranger, orchestrator, composer, vocal coach, and pianist. Coleman was born in San Francisco, California, and grew up in nearby Oakland, where he attended public school and began studying piano at age 4. He has also played oboe, clarinet, violin, English horn and pipe organ.
"Marvin Gaye" is the debut single by American singer-songwriter Charlie Puth featuring fellow American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor, from his third EP, Some Type of Love (2015). It later served as the lead single for his debut studio album, Nine Track Mind (2016). Puth co-wrote it, with Julie Frost, Jacob Luttrell and Nick Seeley, and produced it. Artist Partner Group released it as a single on February 10, 2015. The doo-wop and soul song is named after singer Marvin Gaye, whose name is used as a verb in the lyrics.
Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures is the live show, stageplay and musical production arm of Warner Bros. Discovery. The company forms a part of Warner Bros., one of the major business segments of Warner Bros. Discovery. Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures is led by Mark Kaufman.
Bryan Terrell Clark is an American actor, singer-songwriter and stage director, known for his performances on Broadway. He made his Broadway debut playing singer Marvin Gaye in Motown: The Musical, which received a 2014 Grammy Award nomination for Best Musical Theater Album. Clark played George Washington in the Broadway production of Hamilton in 2017, Cory Maxson in 2006 production of Fences at the Pasadena Playhouse, and starred in 2021 original Broadway production of Thoughts of a Colored Man.
