Mary Wilson brings her “Holiday Spectactular” to Chicago’s Harris Theater for Music and Dance beginning Dec. 23.| AP PHOTO
Everything Motown is new again. Detroit may be a city awash in financial woes at the moment, but it can still send out a joyful noise from decades past. And months before the April arrival of Broadway’s “Motown, The Musical” in Chicago, there will be a show featuring some genuine Motown stars — Mary Wilson and The Four Tops.
“Mary Wilson’s Holiday Spectacular,” featuring The Four Tops as special guests, will settle into the Harris Theatre for Music and Dance for the holiday season, running Dec. 23-Jan. 5. It promises to take audiences on a journey through some of the greatest Motown hits, as well as holiday classics, with Wilson, one of the original Supremes accompanied by The Four Tops , the vocal quartet that helped establish the Motown sound with its repertoire of doo-wop, jazz, soul, R & B, disco and show tunes.
Among the favorites to be heard on the program are such hits by The Supremes as “Stop In The Name of Love,” “I Hear a Symphony,” “Come See About Me,” “Can’t Hurry Love,” “Back In Your Arms Again,” Someday We’ll Be Together” and many more. Abdul “Duke” Fakir, an original member of the quartet, will join its newer members for more music of Motown, including “Baby I Need Your Lovin’,” “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch),” Reach Out, I’ll Be There,” “Bernadette,” “Ain’t No Woman Like the One I Got” and “In The Still of the Night.”
Wilson and The Four Tops will then join together, injecting the Motown sound into such holiday classics as “White Christmas,” “Silent Night,” “Winter Wonderland,” “My Favorite Things” and a special rendition of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” sung by Wilson and Fakir.
Pre-sale tickets ($59.99 – $119.99) go on sale Oct. 22 at 10 a.m. and can be purchased online at Ticketmaster.com. General public tickets go on sale Oct. 28 and can be purchased at Ticketmaster.com; HarrisTheaterChicago.org; by calling (312) 334-7777, or by visiting the Harris Theater box office at 205 E. Randolph. For more information visit MW4TOPS.com. Discounted Group Ticket reservations are available for groups of 10 or more at Grouptix.net or by calling (773) 327-3778.
Performances are Dec. 23, 25 – 29, 31 and Jan. 2 – 4 at 8:00 p.m. and Dec. 28 and Jan. 4 – 5 at 3:00 p.m. The Dec. 31 show is at 10 p.m. — a special New Year’s eve performance with details to be announced later. There will be no performances Dec. 24 and 30.
