Florida Studio Theatre gives blue-eyed soul a spot in the limelight

Stop (in the name of love) ... before you miss “How Sweet It Is,” Florida Studio Theatre’s Summer Cabaret featuring the songs of Motown and others inspired by Berry Gordy’s iconic record company.

“How Sweet It Is” is the “love child” (I can't help myself!) of Canadian singer/songwriter Luke McMaster, a Motown aficionado who’s made a documentary about Lamont Dozier, the middle member of the famed Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team.

It’s the home stretch of McMaster’s run at FST, where he’s accompanied by journeymen performers Louis Tucci and Miles Aubrey. A veteran of the Broadway show “Jersey Boys,” Aubrey takes “How Sweet It Is” away from the Motown songbook with a Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons favorite. (We’re not telling which one.)

It’s not the only time the show leaves Hitsville U.S.A. (the name of the Detroit studio where Motown songs were recorded). There’s a song or two by Felix Cavaliere of the Young Rascals, as well as a memorable ditty by McMaster himself called “Vodka Martini,” inspired by a golf lesson the songwriter received from Smokey Robinson in Palm Springs. (Yeah, Smokey’s in hot water right now with sexual battery allegations, but that’s the man, not his music.)

The libretto, or storytelling part, of “How Sweet It Is” is more than just a pastiche of anecdotes and video found on the internet about the history of Motown. McMaster’s got his own story to tell about how the music label changed his life.

Despite his fears of being an “imposter,” which he voiced both on stage and during an interview, McMaster’s got the street cred to be a practitioner of blue-eyed soul. The musical second son in a family of hockey-playing brothers has spent time writing songs in LA, Las Vegas and Nashville. He also made a half-hour documentary about Dozier (watch it on YouTube) before the legendary Motown songwriter died in 2022 at the age of 81.

“Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if I’d been born in another place and time,” McMaster muses, perhaps imagining himself topping the charts.

it’s already been proven that being white isn’t a barrier to “covering” Motown hits. The label’s songs have been interpreted by plenty of white singers, including The Beatles (“You Really Got a Hold on Me”), Linda Ronstadt (“The Tracks of My Tears”), Phil Collins (“You Can’t Hurry Love”) and James Taylor, who recorded the song that gave McMaster the title for his show.

Before he made his FST debut this summer, McMaster played with his band The Undercovers on Florida’s East Coast. When he got a callback after “cold-calling” FST Associate Artist Catherine Randazzo, she put him together with FST veteran Aubrey, who recently wrapped the FST Winter Cabaret show “The Music of Laurel Canyon,” and Tucci, a seasoned New York City musician.

Randazzo, who oversees FST’s cabaret program, helped McMaster with his libretto. “I like to tell stories during my show, but Catherine helped me write a script that was precise right down to the minute and second,” McMaster says. “It was like having a tutor.”

Despite the fact that he’s working from a script, McMaster leaves room for spontaneity and interaction with the audience. During a recent matinee, he let an inquisitive audience member know that she can find “Vodka Martini” on Spotify and that he’ll earn “point zero, zero zero five cents” if she downloads the song.

Obviously, McMaster is driven by his love for Motown, not money. He says he first began writing songs as an adolescent, up in Brandon, Manitoba’s second largest city. “There was a loose floorboard where I used to hide my notebooks,” he recalls. To practice his songs and to mimic Smokey’s falsetto, he’d use a hairbrush as a microphone.

Coincidentally, at about the same time (1987), a New Wave band in the UK called ABC recorded a tribute to the Motown legend with the title, "When Smokey Sings." We didn't have a chance to ask McMaster, who was born in 1976, if he was familiar with the song.

When he was growing up, never did McMaster imagine that one day he’d hit the links with his idol. The Canadian accepted an out-of-the-blue invitation that came by telephone from Smokey to play golf even though he doesn’t know how to play.

‘Shake it like a vodka martini’

When it became apparent to Smokey that McMaster needed some help with his swing, his advice was to “shake it like a vodka martini,” giving the novice duffer the inspiration for a song and a great anecdote for his cabaret show libretto.

One of the most moving parts of “How Sweet It Is” is when McMaster plays a clip from his “Icons of Soul” documentary about Dozier. 

McMaster got to collaborate on a song with Dozier, whose legacy has been overshadowed by the bigger-than-life Gordy and as well as Motown stars who both wrote and sang, such as Smokey. (Dozier was not a performer.) For the “Icons of Soul” documentary, McMaster and Dozier wrote “My Life is a Song,” which McMaster performs during his show.

While McMaster’s co-stars prove they are stars in their own right, one of the best parts of “How Sweet It Is” comes when Aubrey and Tucci leave the stage for a few minutes. During that time, McMaster puts down his guitar and sits down at the electronic keyboard, where he performs a medley of Motown hits at a slow tempo.

Suddenly, the songs take on a new depth, bringing to the forefront the sorrow that has always been there but that you might have missed because you were tapping your foot or snapping your fingers to the infectious beat.

McMaster likes Sarasota so much that he’s decided to move here full time. He’s been house hunting in Lakewood Ranch and scouting venues for The Undercovers. He’s also working with Randazzo on a future cabaret show for FST. Mum’s the word on that one, McMaster says. Roger that.

But if you want to see McMaster on stage before next winter, better a get move on. It turns out that rockabilly crooner Eddie Cochran got it wrong. There is a cure for the summertime blues; it’s called “How Sweet It Is.”