DREAMGIRLS - from stage to screen

This is going to be a long blog... I will allow you Constant Reader to go for a drink/pee/shaving break if needs be.

I first became aware of DREAMGIRLS when I watched the 1982 Tony Awards – oh for the days when theatre award shows were shown on tv – and was totally blown away by the clip of the show which culminated in Jennifer Holliday justifying her award for Best Featured Actress with a mind-blowing performance of the song “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going”.  A few weeks later, while queuing early in the morning for tickets to that night’s GUYS AND DOLLS at the National Theatre with fellow front-row regulars, we got chatting to a New Yorker next to us in the queue. He fully understood our G&D obsession as he was a DREAMGIRLS regular and his enthusing for the show made me buy the cast recording and it was love at first hearing. So much energy, such great songs and of course.. that song and that singer. I patiently waited.. no London production. Jennifer Holliday launched a solo recording career and I got her to sign my DREAMGIRLS poster after an appearance on “Wogan” but still no London production. The theatre agent I later worked for tried with a guy who worked at the Society of West End Theatre to get the rights to stage the show for an AIDS charity performance here and finally we found out why there had been no London production… the woman who handled the rights felt there wasn’t enough good black British talent to carry the show.   Cow.

So I have never seen it on stage but I have HEARD it on stage! Paul in New York had a recording of the original cast taped through the theatre’s sound desk which he gave me a copy of *note to self… find tapes *! So just as I was reconciling myself to never seeing it I heard it was definitely being adapted for the screen which of course threw up the problem – how could I possibly enjoy it when I loved and knew every single note of the original? So well in fact that 5 years ago I got up on stage at the Piano Bar in Sitges and mimed the title song *note to self… burn photos*

So yesterday, 25 years after falling under the score’s spell, I saw the film with Owen at a special preview at the National Film Theatre. I tried, I really tried… but after about 5 minutes I gave in… and loved it! Bill Condon wrote the screenplay for CHICAGO which I never really warmed to but here he also directs and he does it with a wonderful sweep and élan which glides you through the story of Effie, Deena and Lorrell (Jennifer Hudson, Beyonce Knowles, Anika Noni Rose) and their rise from the humble Dreamettes to the glamorous and chart-topping Dreams. Starting out as backing singers for the ‘wildest man in show business’ James Thunder Early (Eddie Murphy) they are slowly groomed for stardom by their unscrupulous manager Curtis (Jamie Foxx) who realises they have what it takes to cross over into the lucrative pop market of the 1960s.

The Motown inference is bolder in the film – the location is changed from New York to Detroit, the visual references for Deena and The Dreams are blatant steals from both Diana Ross and The Supremes photo shoots and album art while Curtis also later manages a boy band who even Stevie Wonder would recognise as The Jackson 5. Of course the main area where the storyline veers from the Motown source is that the ousted Effie – based on Florence Ballard –after an initial struggle becomes a successful solo singer. For Flo there was no second act, forbidden by Motown to mention The Supremes in any solo publicity material and paid off with hardly any royalties, she struggled with a failing career, depression and addiction problems only to die from a heart attack at the tragically young age of 33. Indeed in one of the early workshops of the show, Effie’s character died but this was dropped when the production team saw what a star-in-the-making they had with Jennifer Holliday.

The performances on the whole are fine although Jamie Foxx is underwhelming as Curtis, his vocal on his song “When I First Saw You” isn’t a patch on Ben Harney in the stage version. Beyonce Knowles wasn’t as bad as I was expecting but the role of Deena is hardly the most dramatic as she reacts more to events than instigates them. She looks sensational though. I really enjoyed Anika Noni Rose as Lorrell who suffers from her one solo being the only song from the original score to be cut. She holds her own though with a feisty performance and Keith Robinson is fine as Effie’s songwriter brother who also becomes disenchanted with Curtis’ manipulations.

The two performances that shine out are in the best roles.

Eddie Murphy seizes the role of Jimmy, the wild and vain insecure star becoming more burnt-out and stifled by Curtis’ indifference and mines it for all it’s got. His response to Curtis’ dismissal of an obvious hit record is wonderful, his face etched with a pain beyond words. And then there is Jennifer Hudson. My love of the other Jennifer H made this the biggest hurdle for me but while not having the mighty church vocal of Holliday she is marvellous – an instant star and a natural on screen, even more amazing that this is her film debut. Her performance of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” alone should guarantee her the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. At its conclusion the audience burst into spontaneous applause which it also did when her name appeared at the end. So few recent musicals allow you to concentrate on the performer – what I hated about MOULIN ROUGE and CHICAGO in particular was the way the busy editing ruined any chance of sitting back and just being able to enjoy the singer singing. Here Condon wisely lets nothing gets in the way of Hudson.

Sadly Jennifer Holliday has been getting a lot of press attention in the US bemoaning the fact that she was not asked to appear in the film – the stage ‘Lorrell’ Loretta Devine appears as a blues singer towards the end of the film – but I think this has been rather sad. There is no way she could play Effie now having lost all the weight she had back then and would probably have raised hell had she been offered a cameo. Down the years how many great stage originals have lost out when the film version is made?                                   

Most notably Ethel Merman in GYPSY, Chita Rivera in WEST SIDE STORY, Barbara Cook in THE MUSIC MAN or Angela Lansbury in MAME but those performances live on. It’s a shame she cannot see that the opportunity afforded Hudson is the same that Michael Bennett gave her in the original show. The film is dedicated to Bennett, the director/choreographer whose genius had already given Broadway A CHORUS LINE, who died 20 years ago this year aged 44 of an AIDS-related illness.

"Every man has his own special dream..."