50 Favourite Musicals: 13: DREAMGIRLS (1981) (Henry Krieger / Tom Eyen)

The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and, as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast recording of my life:

 First performed: 1981, Imperial Theatre, NY

First seen by me: 2016, Savoy Theatre, London

Productions seen: one

Score: Henry Krieger / Tom Eyen

Book: Tom Eyen 

Plot: In 1962, The Dreamettes, a black teenage girl group, lose a talent show at Harlem's Apollo Theatre but backstage they meet a shrewd car salesman, Curtis Taylor Jr., who sees in them a way of getting into the music business.  After persuading the outrageous R&B singer James 'Thunder' Early to make The Dreamettes his backing group, Effie, Deena and Lorrell are propelled to fame as The Dreams, making hit records and appearing in fancy nightclubs.  But professional and personal betrayals swiftly wreck their friendship as Curtis plots to make Deena a solo star...

Five memorable numbers: DREAMGIRLS, AND I AM TELLING YOU I'M NOT GOING, STEPPIN' TO THE BAD SIDE, CADILLAC CAR, ONE NIGHT ONLY

I know... I thought it would be higher too.  I first became aware of DREAMGIRLS when I watched the 1981 Tony Awards on tv - ah for the days when they showed it on terrestrial television in the UK - and witnessed the explosive performance of Jennifer Holliday singing "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going".  A few weeks later, while queueing early in the morning outside the National Theatre with my fellow-Front Row regulars for that night's GUYS AND DOLLS, I started chatting to a New Yorker who was full of excitement for that night's show as he had heard it was *the* musical to see in London and had not realized you could get tickets on the day.  He said he understood totally our devotion to GUYS as he felt the same for DREAMGIRLS, having seen it several times.   Remembering Holliday's performance and on his urging I bought the cast recording and fell in love with it's astonishing score.  Who knew though that I would have to wait 34 long years until I saw the show on a London stage.  A reason might have been because when I worked for an actor's agent in the 1990s she attempted to secure the rights for a one-off performance for AIDS charities but to no avail.  Eventually she was told that the rights holders felt there was no comparable talent in the UK to do the show justice.  So there you go...  What I did have however was that cast recording, a cd so stupendous that it was until relatively recently, the highest placed cast recording on the Billboard 200 chart.  Holiday's performance still bursts out of the recording, taking no prisoners in it's wake.  My DREAMGIRLS fix was added to when also in the 1990s I heard a sound-desk copy of the actual show and realized how much of the score was missing from the album - almost half of the linking songs and exposition were missing

Of course my addiction was mostly fulfilled when Bill Condon's screen version was released in 2006, I had suspected that it would never be as good as I wanted but of course it triumphed on all counts but then finally a theatre production arrived in London, directed by in-demand director Casey Nicholaw.  And...?  Despite a slick production, great choreography, lighting, sets and costumes, something stopped me LOVING the show as much as I felt I should have done.  Maybe the film had stolen it's thunder as in retrospect I can see how faithful it was to Tom Eyen's original book - the film's obvious building up of James 'Thunder' Early, Curtis Taylor and Deena Jones' roles for Eddie Murphy, Jamie Foxx and Beyoncé's roles are the only noticeable changes - but I think what really put a break on my enjoyment was the lack of major star players in the leads; DREAMGIRLS ultimately felt like a glorious firework display; spectacular to experience but a bit hollow at heart.  But that original cast recording - which I have played devotedly for 37 years - means that it still nearly makes my Top 10.

The choice for a video is a obvious... the one that started my love for the show, the performer and the song.  The Tony Awards on June 6th 1982 gave us this legendary footage of Jennifer Holliday's Tony Award-winning performance - astonishing to think she was only 21 years old.  DREAMGIRLS won a total of six Tony Awards out of 13 nominations - most famously losing Best Musical and Michael Bennett's chance at Best Director to Maury Yeston's NINE and it's director Tommy Tune.  However Bennett shared the Best Choreography Award with Michael Peters.  Tragically both Bennett and Peters were lost to the AIDS virus in 1987 and 1994 respectively.