"Stars in Concert" Impresario Bernhard Kurz to Present Musical Tribute to Motown Sound in Detroit and Berlin

"Stars in Concert" Impresario Bernhard Kurz to Present Musical Tribute to Motown Sound in Detroit and Berlin

BERLIN and LAS VEGAS, October 31/PRNewswire/ -- The magic that was Motown will be returning to the international stage in
2009 for the first time since the legendary Motortown Revue shows made
musical history in the 1960's. All the songs, the music, the dance steps and
movements and the excitement of the Motown Sound as personified by Diana Ross
and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder,
Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, Martha and The Vandellas, The Contours,
Mary Wells, The Marvelettes, The Jackson 5 and Lionel Ritchie - along with
supporting performances by their fellow Detroit musical legends Jackie Wilson
and Aretha Franklin - will take the stage in the production of Motown
Memories, as performed by the world's most talented assemblage of tribute
artists and musicians.

Audiences will feel they've been transported back to the
heyday of the Motown Sound by the lovingly and painstakingly recreated
original music, costumes and performance routines. The production is enhanced
by multimedia video of original footage, rare photographs, and other
memorabilia, a hallmark of productions brought to the stage by Bernhard Kurz.

A four-time winner of the Las Vegas-based Entertainment
Network's Artists Choice Award as "Producer of the Year", Kurz received the
2007 award at the September Gala in Berlin's Estrel Festival Center
recognizing the 10 year continuous run of his Stars in Concert production,
the world's leading and most successful tribute artist show. Bernhard Kurz
began his career as a theatrical producer under the tutelage of Andrew Lloyd
Webber, for whom he worked as manager and production manager of Cats,
Starlight Express and Phantom of the Opera, effectively creating the German
musical market in 1986. Kurz's phenomenal long running shows include his
tribute shows to the Beatles ("all you need is love!"), ABBA ("Thank you for
the music"), Elvis ("Elvis - The Show") as well as the Blues Brothers ("I'm a
Soulman") which have played to audiences worldwide.

The Motown production will link the 30 musical numbers through
a narrative performed by actors telling the Motown story from the unique
perspective of Al Abrams, hired by Berry Gordy, Jr. in 1959 as the first
employee of what was to become the Motown empire. Abrams, an 18-year-old
Jewish kid, worked in an all black milieu to get the company's records played
on air by white disk jockeys. In the mid-1960's he became the company's
public relations director. The struggle of Motown's artists to crossover from
the restrictive world of black music into the consciousness of white America
paralleled the ongoing Civil Rights movement. "The legacy of Motown in
context with the political and social circumstances is much more than just
music that became legendary - it is a philosophy," says Kurz.

The musical will share previously untold Motown stories with
audiences, and Abrams promises it will be informative, educational and above
all entertaining. It will highlight his often humorous interaction with young
Berry Gordy, Jr. and others from the early days of the Motown saga. "This is
the story you won't see - or hear - elsewhere," says Abrams.

Abrams is the author of 11 published books. His latest book,
Selling My Soul: The Complete Motown Press Releases, 1964-1966 is awaiting
publication.

The show will coincide with the three-year global celebration
of Motown's 50th birthday launched in Detroit this month. It will be staged
in Berlin at the Estrel Festival Center. Kurz will be looking at venues in
Detroit in mid-November.

North American media contact:
Al Abrams,
Mail: alabrams@Motown50.us;

German media contact:
"Stars in Concert"
c/o Estrel Berlin,
Mihaela Djuranovic and Miranda Meier,
Sonnenallee 225,
12057 Berlin,
Germany,
Tel: +49(0)30-6831-22124,
Fax: +49(0)30-6831-2366,
Mail: presse@estrel.com,

http://www.stars-in-concert.de

Source: Stars in Concert

North American media contact: Al Abrams, Mail: alabrams@Motown50.us; German media contact: "Stars in Concert" c/o Estrel Berlin, Mihaela Djuranovic and Miranda Meier, Sonnenallee 225, 12057 Berlin, Germany, Tel: +49(0)30-6831-22124, Fax: +49(0)30-6831-2366, Mail: presse@estrel.com

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