A History of Motown returns with new stories and even bigger hits

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When: Aug. 19-29 Where: Firehall Arts Centre, 280 E. Cordova St., Vancouver Tickets: From $40 at firehallartscentre.ca and 604-689-0926

There’s a little-known Canadian connection to Motown, and it’s one that singer Krystle Dos Santos highlights in her show A History of Motown.

In 1968, the Vancouver band Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers signed to the Detroit-based company. The group, which included Tommy Chong, had a top 30 hit, Does Your Mama Know About Me. And, Dos Santos says, “There’s an alternate story to Diana Ross discovering the Jackson Five — that it’s Bobby Taylor who discovered them while on tour in Chicago in 1968.”

A mix of storytelling and music, A History of Motown began as a way to educate kids about the industry-changing hit factory out of Detroit. Last April, then again in August, Dos Santos and her six-piece band took the show from school gyms to the Firehall Arts Centre stage.

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For the theatre, she expanded the show into two sets. “The first was about setting the stage: What’s Motown? When was it? Where was it? Who were the players involved? And the second set was more of a dance party, opening it up to the hits.”

For the second Firehall run, she began taking a deeper dive into the stories of Motown artists like Diana Ross. For the upcoming series of shows, she’s adding a segment that looks at the post-Motown careers of icons like Michael Jackson and Diana Ross.

This will give her opportunity to perform songs like Jackson’s Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough, Billie Jean, and possibly Beat It, and Ross’s post-Supremes version of Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.

The show is comprised mostly of well-known Motown hits, with one or two exceptions.

“One of my all-time favourite songs is If I Were Your Woman by Gladys Knight & the Pips, from when they were still signed to Motown. It’s such a beautiful arc for a performer to dig into. I absolutely love singing that song.”