<<<< Do you think a "rank amateur" actress could have tugged at her heart-strings the way Holliday did during "And I am Telling You..."? >>>
Yes, absolutely, because that's exactly what happened. By her own admission, she never knew or cared anything about Broadway or acting before DREAMGIRLS. She'd been discovered at 19 in Houston singing gospel on a local tv channel by a dancer in the road company of A Chorus Line who had close ties to Vinnette Carroll. Carroll was trying to cast the Broadway revival of her "Your Arms Too Short To Box With God." The dancer (Jamie Rogers) called Carroll immediately and said he had found someone for the Delores Hall role. Holliday was contacted and flown to New York and made her debut Broadway debut shortly afterwards as Jennifer Yvette Holliday. The role required no acting and had no lines, just a lot of powerhouse gospel singing (I saw her in the role and she was just incredible). She soon came to the attention of Bennett's people who were looking to replace Nell Carter (who'd left for Hollywood) in the role of Effie in the second DREAMGIRLS workshop. She came in, sang and got the part. Shortly thereafter, Eyen and Krieger wrote "And I Am Telling You..." with Holliday's voice in mind. When she first performed it for Bennett, he was absolutely devastated by it. Bennett said he was so overwhelmed by her performance of it that he had to walk out of the room and compose himself; the sound of it haunted him for weeks, months and ever after.
Just think, Holliday learned "And I Am Telling You..." in rehearsal room in a few minutes, walked out sang it sheet music in hand and devastated Bennett with it -- there was no acting to that, no sense memory ..... she simply belted out the notes that were in front of her. Holliday herself has said in interviews that, being a 20 year old deeply religious virgin at the time she took the role of Effie, she had no idea who this character was or what she was about or frankly what she was singing about half the time. She just sang it and said the lines and stood where Mr. Bennett told her to and it all just worked out fine that way. She's said that years later, now in her 40s, she's lived through all of Effie's experiences and now can bring that knowledge to playing the role (as she does on the road from time to time) and it's a much deeper interpretation than anything she did back in '81.
From gospel she knew how to infuse her singing with an incredible passion and intensity -- it's a technique, a sound, a learned talent. If you've ever spent any time in a gospel church (I sang gospel for years), you know that the music can very often be an emotionally overwhelming experience. It's not "acting" -- it's just a matter of how that kind of singing is done. The great gospel singers typically have multi-octave ranges, astonishing breath crontrol and are armed with a huge arsenal of technique and tricks -- growls, and all manner of melismatic flourishes designed to bring a congregation to its feet. Holliday has ranked as one of the country's premier gospel singers since her late teens and is a master of pushing an audience's buttons (her gospel recordings are outstanding).
I'm hardly the first to point out that Holliday was never much of an actress (and it's ludicrous to mention her in even the same breath as Stritch or Collins -- Holliday's much closer to Merman, who also wasn't the greatest or sublest actress but could raise the hair on the back of your neck and stop shows cold with the sheer force and power of her instrument). I've had several friends who were in the show over the years, including a couple in the original cast, and they've told me story after story of how in rehearsal Bennett nearly tore his hair out trying to teach her how to say a simple line naturally and how to walk across the stage without looking awkward. He helped her manufacture a performance that wasn't an embarassment, but mostly he just let her unleash that voice which masked all the flaws and gave the illusion that she was a real actress (but several cast members and even Bennett himself privately said disparaging things about her acting ability).
Look again at the Tony performance from '82 if you have it -- she makes "I'll make it, just get my dress...... where's my dress? .... Lorrell where's my dress?" sound like something she's reading off of a cue card even though she'd been doing the role for six months at that point. All that arm waving, eye-bugging and over-emoting would be more at home on the stage of the Metropolitan (where they don't expect their divas to be able to really act, either). It's dramatic and larger-than-life, but I wouldn't call it "acting."
Compare Holliday's performance of Effie with that of Julia McGirt or Sheila Ellis or Lillias White and there's no comparison in the acting department -- they were terrific actresses in addition to being first-rate singers and really interpreted the lyrics they were singing, finding subtlety and nuance amid all of that belting (McGirt's understated "I Am Changing" was a memorable example of that). But, whatever she lacked interpretationally, Holliday was truly a force of nature and overwhelmed audiences through the sheer vocal intensity. Whatever her shortcomings in the acting department, Holliday will forever be a legend for her powerhouse singing as Effie White.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
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"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Updated On: 10/14/04 at 03:04 PM
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