Dreamgirls Musical: Similarities to Supremes

No matter what anyone says, its obvious some of the piece, if not all of it was inspired by the story of Diana Ross and the Supremes and in the film it's more than obvious that Deena is supposed to be a Ross figure

Deena/Diana, obviously.

But the same could be said about Destiny's Child, the similarities are close there too.

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The basic plot of Dreamgirls is derived from the history of The Supremes, a girl-group from Detroit which was Motown's most successful group act during the 1960s. Effie White is a doppelganger for Florence Ballard, original lead singer of the Supremes. Diana Ross, who became the central focus of the Supremes and later left the group to pursue a solo career and a brief venture into films, is here adapted into the character of Deena Jones. Supremes member Mary Wilson is represented by Lorrell Robinson. Curtis Taylor, Jr. represents Berry Gordy, Jr., the founder of Motown, who pushed the Supremes towards pop success and became romantically involved with Ross. James "Thunder" Early is depicted as a cross between James Brown, Marvin Gaye, and Jackie Wilson, and C. C. White is a collective representative for The Supremes' primary songwriters, Holland-Dozier-Holland. Michelle Morris is representative of Cindy Birdsong, Florence Ballard's replacement in The Supremes, which was renamed "Diana Ross & the Supremes" at the time of that personnel change.

Dreamgirls is most dissimilar from The Supremes' story in its second act, which ends with Effie finding success as a solo performer. In real life, Florence Ballard's solo career was unsuccessful and the singer sank into poverty, depression, and alcoholism, dying of cardiac arrest at the age of thirty-two in 1976.

Mary Wilson loved Dreamgirls, and even named her first autobiography, Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme, after it. Diana Ross, however, was reportedly angered by the musical, and expressed her dislike of it in the media. Though the Deena character mirrors Diana Ross, Sheryl Lee Ralph stands to the fact that she was not trying to imitate Ross, but portrayed Deena in a similar yet distinct style.
http://www.answers.com/topic/dreamgirls

Although the reliability of Wikipedia has already been called into question, this bio on Ballard sounds eerily like the synopsis of "Dreamgirls."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Ballard

Updated On: 12/30/06 at 06:38 PM

My English teacher prohibited us from using Wikipedia while working on our research papers.

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DianE ErNestine eArle ross

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Though there's the big difference that Deena is pretty compassionate and loving whereas Diana Ross, you know, lacks a soul.

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theaterkid, I don't think Effie died at the end of the first act. She sang "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" still to close it, and then never returned the rest of the show (the character's death was mentioned in the second act.)

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Actually, real academics cite Wikis all the time, the trend is growing for precisely the reason you said, because you CAN check the sources, if you click on the discussion tab, you get a whole forum on the subject in question and that can direct your research further as well as see if the wiki is biased based on who edited it.

It's a much better tool than an encyclopedia which is decided by an usually anonymous committee with a hidden agenda, on wikipedia, the agenda is usually obvious, and you can make educated opinions from that.

No, I don't work for wikipedia, but in essence, I do, because Wikipedia if a user-defined encyclopedia, so yeah, I do.

Wikipedia is especially helpful for pop culture or quickly changing topics, because the information if updated much more quickly and the hotbutton issues are monitored more closely.

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I never knew about the Florence Ballard situation until today. What a different story it would have been if Effie disappeared after act one and later died like Ballard. It would have been a much colder show business parable than it is now.

I wonder why it was suddenly alright when the movie came around to tout the Supremes similarities when it was such a taboo subject before.

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MADtv did a parody of the Dreamgirls movie, where they point out the obvious similarities between The Dreams and The Supremes.

Effie: And who do you think you are -- Diana Ross?
Deena: My name is Deena, not Diana. And we're The Dreams, not The Supremes. And we're from Detroit, not Det- Still, I'm nothing like Diana Ross!

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It is inspired by the story of The Supremes, but it's still a fictional piece.

Florence Ballard was never the lead singer of The Supremes. If you listen to their earliest recordings, back when they were a foursome known as The Primettes, Diana (then known as Diane) Ross was nearly always the lead singer, although Florence and Mary each had their occasional solo. The primary difference is that their backing vocals were featured much more prominently. They also stood alongside Diana when they performed live. As they became bigger, the girl group phase began to wane. Ross' vocals were more dominant on the recordings and she stood in front of the other two when performing live. Florence felt that they were being phased out. She wanted solo lines in songs, as the guys in The Temptations had, but Berry Gordy was not interested in such an arrangement. She gained weight in her last year with The Supremes (although she was never as big as the Jennifers Holliday and Hudson) and became erratic. She drank a bit and could not handle her liquor. She would miss rehearsals. She once missed a show and Diana and Mary performed as a duo. She was spoken to and told to get it together, and she knew that Cindy Birdsong, who had filled in for her when she missed an engagement at the Hollywood Bowl, was rehearsing the stage act in her absence. She did make an effort to shape up, but when she arrived in Vegas in July of 1967 to see them now billed as Diana Ross and The Supremes on the marquee, she lost it and performed poorly. That turned out to be her final show.

She had recorded the songs that were on the first "Diana Ross and The Supremes" album, "Reflections", but Cindy Birdsong was credited. On nearly all of their later recordings, Diana sang leads and Motown back-up singers The Andantes provided the support. Mary and Cindy usually only sang live. Florence's more robust voice was plainly missed, but if you listen to her solos you will realize she was no Effie White-style powerhouse. She was just a good singer who tired of her increasingly reduced role on the world's stage. Her own unpredictable behavior had more to do with her being replaced than any other factor, and I doubt anyone was very happy about replacing her.

The tragedy is that she was bought out for very little money, and her release stipulated that she could never promote herself as an original or former Supreme. She was never able to get her career off the ground and with a family to support she went broke. It was a shock in the early 70s when she resurfaced on welfare. She seemed on the verge of a comeback, and then, out of nowhere, she died.

This is my favorite lead vocal of hers, from the album "The Supremes Sing Sam Cooke." I hope you like it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBE367JNWSU