Actor James T. Lane Is ‘Uniquely Qualified’ To Tell Story of Troubled Singer In ‘Ain’t Too Proud’ Musical
In the first national tour of “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations,” Broadway actor James T. Lane, 44, transforms into Paul Williams, the embattled original lead singer, and choreographer of the legendary Motown singing group. The tour will begin a six-day residency at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre on March 8.
Nominated for 12 Tony Awards, and winner for Best Choreography, “Ain't Too Proud” tells the thrilling story of brotherhood, family, loyalty, and betrayal, as the group's personal and political conflicts threatened to tear them apart during a decade of civil unrest in America.
For eight shows a week, the openly gay actor embodies the highs and lows of a tortured artist incapable of escaping his own demons. It’s a story that parallels a period in Lane’s life that makes his casting feel more like a divine assignment than an additional credit on an already impressive resume. From the moment he showed up to audition for the role, to belting out Williams’ signature song, “For Once In My Life,” Lane has been appointed for such a time as this.
“The final audition was an in-person audition in New York City at Pearl Studios and there was no one there for the role,” Lane says. “I don't know what was happening, but I was the only one there. I couldn't get through the song [“For Once In My Life”] in the audition without bursting out into tears because it just meant so much,” he said.
“I knew I had a gift, and I knew that it was God-given. And I knew that a lot of people had poured into me over the years. And I was squandering it.”
- James T. Lane
Unlike Williams, whose life ended due to alcohol addiction, and a reported self-inflicted gunshot wound, Lane was able to get to the other side of wrestling his own demons to tell the tale.
“Another part of this character really came to the forefront, and I really brought all of myself and my experience of being free of alcohol and drugs to this audition process,” he said.
Following a dance injury on the national tour of “Fame The Musical” in 2000, Lane, who says he only previously drank socially, tells The Reckoning that he became consumed by drugs and alcohol over a four-year period that temporarily derailed his life and career.
“Somebody said to me, ‘Hey, do you want to try some ecstasy?’ And I was like, yeah, I'd never tried anything like that before,” Lane says. “I went to DC PRIDE. I’d never been to a PRIDE before. And I proceeded to lose my mind! And so for the next four and a half years, all the things that you would think could happen when someone has a particular hereditary disease called alcoholism, and a pocket full of money, all of those things happened,” he said.
A Philadelphia native, Lane says he was clear as early as kindergarten that he wanted to become a performer and matriculated through performing arts primary and high schools before briefly attending Carnegie Mellon and Penn State University. The late Cheryl Shepherd, mother of actor and Lane’s childhood friend Chaz Lamar Shepherd, who appeared as Al Bryant in the NBC miniseries “The Temptations,” was one of Lane’s teachers and major influences.
“I knew I had a gift, and I knew that it was God-given,” Lane says. “And I knew that a lot of people had poured into me over the years. And I was squandering it.”
“I was homeless. I had a home to go to, but I was never there. My mother never threw me out, but I chose to be out on the streets most of the time. The bottom just kept dropping out and dropping out. It lasted for about four and a half years.”
Lane tells The Reckoning that he knew he’d hit rock bottom when his substance abuse landed him on the street.
“I was homeless. I had a home to go to, but I was never there. My mother never threw me out, but I chose to be out on the streets most of the time,” he said. "The bottom just kept dropping out and dropping out. It lasted for about four and a half years. The first two years were fun and I could justify it because I still had money and a job. And then I was unhireable. I was fired from “The Lion King.” A job that I had won playing the lead [ “Fame The Musical”] they were shooing me away because I had ruined that relationship. And then, I just drug along the bottom for the last two and a half years and saw a few friends overdose and die,” he said.
By 2004, Lane says he was “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” And despite being in the throes of addiction, love presented itself, along with the opportunity for him to abandon drugs and alcohol.
“I realized that I couldn't show up for my relationship if I wasn't showing up for myself. And so I started to show up for myself in September 2004,” he said. “November 16, 2004, was my last drink and last drug use. I've been free of alcohol and drugs for 17 years.”
The Way You Do The Things You Do
Lane describes Williams and the other members of “The Temptations” as supernovas who burned bright and hot before they disappeared. And while Lane is still writing his life story, he has been able to achieve a personal milestone that eluded Williams and ultimately contributed to his death.
“What I've gotten to experience is I can live on in Paul's legacy because I got myself together,” Lane says. “I know what it was like in the circumstances and the situations that he was a part of with the alcohol and the drugs and the pain. But I got to get to the other side of that and live on in the legacy of a show built with these supernovas. So I'm uniquely qualified to tell this tale,” he said.
“Usually there’s one Black man in a show. And you’re not really telling your story most of the time—something that hits you so deeply. So here we are, about to tell a legendary story. We are each other’s keepers on that stage. We’re moving as a unit. We really operate as one.”
In Philadelphia, where his mother still resides, there are reminders from people who shared in Lane’s past addiction of how his life could have ended up if he’d continued down a destructive path.
“My mother talks about seeing some of the people that I was getting high with and they would recognize her, and one of the guys would say a phrase that I just think is really profound. He’d say, ‘How’s my life doing?’ Meaning, the life that he would have lived if he’d gotten himself together and gotten out of here. How's my life?”
For Lane, who is contracted to be on the road with “Ain’t Too Proud” through 2023, his life and career continue to soar, with the darkest chapters in his story now a mere footnote, but an important part of his biography. And now each week in cities across the country, he gets to tell a distinctly Black American story in a rare cast led by Black male performers who are more like brothers than colleagues.
“What people are seeing when I walk into the room is that life experience. There's no acting class that can teach that. It's valuable. It’s life, and it's priceless.”
- James T. Lane
“Usually there's one Black man in a show. And you're not really telling your story most of the time—something that hits you so deeply,” he said. “So here we are, about to tell a legendary story. We are each other's keepers on that stage. We're moving as a unit. We really operate as one.”
In hindsight, it’s not hard to understand why Lane was the only actor at the final audition for the role of Paul Williams. Like any great actor who completely immerses himself and gets lost in the character he’s portraying, Lane embodies Williams.
“What people are seeing when I walk into the room is that life experience,” he said. “There's no acting class that can teach that. It's valuable. It’s life, and it's priceless.”
"Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations" will run from March 8-13, 2022, at Atlanta's Fox Theatre. Tickets start at $40 and can be purchased here.
