I read this a few months ago and thought it was interesting:
from "Dreamgirls 1981" by Charlie Suisman
"The Boston tryout is the period I remember with the most pleasure. Despite tech week's '10 out of 12s' – a grueling schedule of ten-hour rehearsals out of a period of twelve hours, the shared purpose, being out of New York, and the excitement over the show created a camaraderie among the cast, crew, designers, and everyone else working on the show. (Well, among most of us: Phylicia Ayers-Allen, who was in the chorus, had a permanently aggrieved look on her face and her demeanor made it clear that she was made for better things. And who's to say she wasn't right, since she went on to become Phylicia Rashad and to play Bill Cosby's wife on The Cosby Show.)"
full article:
http://www.manhattanusersguide.com/archives_content.php?contentID=121106&category=arts Diehard Cosby fans (like me) know that Phylicia has a "lovely" (seems to be the best word to describe it) voice. It is definitely more powerful than Sheryl Lee Ralph's coo, and not as piercing as Linda Leilani Brown's head voice. It's a perfectly GOOD voice, right up there with any television star who's got an engagement at Feinstein's. Not coincidentally, I'd say that Phylicia's voice is to Nancy Wilson's as Diahann Carroll's is to Shirley Bassey's. Swell, but not *quite* strong enough for her to be considered a singer/actor opposed to an actor/singer.
I said "Swell"...
Phylicia was also busy playing Asa's lawyer, Courtney on One Life to Live when she was doing Dreamgirls. She was sort of Evangeline before Evangeline was Evangeline.
