I was intimately involved at an early stage of the project, pre-Menken, and was one of the people involved in attempting to license the Motown numbers for the show. The book at this point was pretty much the screenplay, with some moments from Paul Rudnick's initial draft (Deloris and the cop fall for each other again, have past history together, etc.) that later became key plot changes in the show also very much a part of the text.
The score would have involved all the Motown moments from
Sister Act and a couple of numbers from Rudnick's first draft and
Sister Act II (only the Motown, none of the new arrangements for the schoolkids) to pad out the evening.
Apparently Berry Gordy's got different plans for Motown on Broadway - a nebulous show that I don't see happening in the near future, working title of
Ain't No Mountain High Enough (geez, what a cliche). I advised dropping the
Sister Act project, but the team involved were more interested in trying to do it without the Motown. I said, "Didn't we run the numbers on this?" (And it's because of that market research we did that I keep reiterating my opinion, and I thought my point was proven when Pasadena and Atlanta met with tepid reception.)
I won't say I left in exasperation, that would be a lie, but it wasn't the project I signed on for anymore. I learned they'd hired Alan Menken, I thought he'd be a good choice, said good luck, and hit the road.
"There is no problem so big that it cannot be run away from."
~ Charles M. Schulz
Oh well.
