LOS ANGELES — He is not too proud to tell you, Harrell Holmes Jr. is living his dream — a very specific dream he’s had since he was 7 years old.
“As a crazy kid, I thought I could be a Temptation one day,” he said.
He remembers watching a miniseries on the Motown legends and being mesmerized by their moves, their voices, their style. He sang “Ain’t Too Proud” in his third-grade talent show and later on "Star Search."
Harrell was so passionate about music that he convinced his parents to leave Michigan and move to Southern California, where he continued singing through high school and college.
Then, one night in 2018, a friend took him to see "Ain’t Too Proud" at the Ahmanson before it headed to Broadway.
“I remember turning into my friend, I said, ‘man, I don’t know how I’m going to be a part of this, but I have to be a part of this show,'” he recalled.
And now he is.
Holmes is a member of the national tour that is playing at the Ahmanson through Jan. 1. He and his cast mates said growing up, The Temptations were just part of the fabric of their lives. Learning to capture their signature harmonies took practice, but it paid off and now, Elijah Ahmad Lewis said , it’s like butter.
“It’s like putting a good spread of butter on a good piece of warm bread,” he said while the other members of the quintet teased him. “That’s what the harmony is like.”
Of course the Temptations were known as much for their sound as they were for the steps and the cast has Sergio Trujillo to thank for giving all the right moves. His work on the show won the Tony for Best Choreography. He uses some of their favorite moves in the opening number, but after that the choreography mostly comes just from his imagination — inspired by the original but fresh enough to tempt a younger audience.
Not that they need much wooing. OG Temp Otis Williams said the music of the Motown group transcends time.
The “My Girl’s,” the “Get Ready’s,” the “Ain’t Too Proud’s,” he listed, “here it is 60 years later, and people are still reacting to them like a brand new.”