Effie White -- Does She Have To Be "Heavy?" — Page 7

"Help! I'm addicted to STRAIGHT, you got that, STRAIGHT porn! on the next Oprah"

Oh God. What is wrong with him? Then there was the time he was cast in a UPN sitcom but dropped out not because his character was gay, but because the show would feature another gay character, and he would have to show "approval" or some bs like that.

ANYWAY , to bring this thread atleast kind of back on topic, I'm not feeling the casting of J. Hudson as Effie. Her voice is technically very good but nothing out of the ordinary, atleast IMO. I can't seeing her doing all of those impassioned, gospel growls. (I don't know why the buzz was only about AI people. There are other singers out there who didn't appear on AI. God, why does this show's alumni have to infester everything from radio to theatre, and now movies? Am I the only one who hates this show?) The most important element, I think, will be for her to work with an acting coach. Several singers on talent shows such as AI and Apollo attempt to sing the song only to show off the pyrotechnics, but they have absolutely no emotional connection whatsoever.
Someone upthread mentioned Tarralyn Ramsey, and from what I have heard of her, she may have been a very good choice. But all in all, I agree a fiercely talented unknown should have been cast.

EDITED because I forgot to reply to this:

"Sure, some hypocrite haters would make snide remarks, but I don't believe for one second that Jennifer Holliday's Gospel career would be ruined for being gay friendly. Patti LaBelle wouldn't have a friend in Jesus if that were the case."

Just imagine if Yolanda Adams sang at a pride event, gave an interview to a gay publication, or hell, even simply stated that she believes gays should have equal rights. Her career would be over. Period. It doesn't matter if she and the national black church knows there are many gay people in the church, she couldn't publicly acknowledge her support. And Patti is not primarily a gospel artist, even though she may occasionally sing gospel and has gospel influences. She's not held to the same standards.

Updated On: 3/21/06 at 11:40 PM

I think it's interesting Jennifer Holliday says in the broadway.com interview posted by kevs on this thread that the actress who plays Effie must be a singer first and then get acting training. I have always thought it should be the other way around, I am not sure I'd be OK if Jennifer Hudson does a grandiose version of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" and "I Am Changing" without actually performing the song as Effie. I guess Holliday would know, having played Effie herself, but I still feel they should have gotten an actress who could sing instead of a singer who would be coached to act. Condor is a great director/screenwriter so I'm sure he hired Hudson for a reason.
I wonder how he is going to stage "And I Am Telling You...," does anyone know if "It's All Over" was cut? I assume the more theatrical songs were probably cut since dialogue is being added. I'm sorry, I have never seen Dreamgirls live but my cast recording is worn out and the film looks rather promising so I'm quite excited.

Updated On: 3/22/06 at 02:06 AM

On this same thread (one or two pages before this one) someone posted an interview with Jennifer Holliday in which she says:
" Yes, Dreamgirls was supposed to become a movie twice. The first time Whitney Houston was slated to play Deena. The complication with that version was that Whitney wanted to sing Deena's songs and Effie's songs. Not! Duh! Hello! She wanted to sing "I Am Changing" and "(And) I Am Telling You." You see why it took years to explain to her that couldn't really be a possibility?! So, that was the first version. Then about three years ago, they wanted to do a whole new rendition with Lauren Hill as Deena and Kelly Price as Effie, but it just never caught fire."
I have seen the clip of Houston performing the song and I'm not a big fan of it, just my opinion.

And these days, imagine Whitney singing AIATY with a crack pipe in one hand and her false teeth in another. It certainly would be a showstopper.

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I haven't heard Julia Nixon nee McGirt sing it, and I'll take Margo's word that she was outstanding, but there's only one version of AIATYING other than Jennifer Holliday's that I have thoroughly enjoyed. It was actually a contestant on Showtime at the Appollo from the late '80s/early '90s. I remember seeing the clip on one of their "Best of Amateur Night" episodes.
She was reminiscent of Izora from Two Tons O' Fun, and she really sang it (although she messed up some of the words, and was basically doing Jennifer's version). She just rolled up to the mic, took it off the stand, swung that cord, and this huge amazing voice just spilled out of her mouth. It was so effortless.

If Jennifer Holliday is not in the revival of THE WIZ, I will sob for several weeks.

She would make a great Evilene. I still watch Mabel King in What's Happening!! reruns every night.
The other day I was thinking Jennifer would be great for a concert version of Little Shop. She could do double duty as the soloist ("A-LAAARRRM goes off at se-heh-ven...") and the voice of Audrey II ("FFEEED MEH SEEEEE-MOWWWW, hunh hah heh...").

Speaking of...has anybody heard any casting rumors for THE WIZ? Holliday's still out there - what are people's thoughts on this ACTUALLY happening?

I don't mean THE WIZ actually happening - I mean Jennifer Holliday being in it...

I really would love to see Holiday in Dreamgirls, but, I think Hudson's gonna blow the film right out of the water!

As for weight, I had NO idea when Holiday started out, she was skinnier. Thanks for the info! And Margo, thanks for the post, its really great news! I guess typically a heavyset woman was picked maybe for a couple reasons:

1 - Flo Ballard (Effie's model) was the heaviER one in the Supremes
2 - Since Effie stood farther out from Lorrell and Deena and would eventually break out as the star of DREAMGIRLS, it would make sense to set her apart in weight, as a foreshadowing of differences between the group members
3 - A LOT of big belters like Holiday are typically larger in size.

However, the skinniER ones may have more umpf to their voice or more (as Margo said) focus on the lyrics, like Julia McGirt.

Great topic!

I just have to reiterate what others have said about thanking Margo. I never really knew anything about the show until recently and this thread was great!! I loved the movie and can't get those songs out of my head!

Ugh, stop rewriting the book to The Wiz. The original isn't great, but every re-write has been worse (and the live t.v. version was dreadful).

Not every pregnant woman looks exactly the same. Heck, they made an entire TV show about women who didn’t know they were pregnant! I don’t think it’s too far out of the realm of possibility that she’d been gaining weight both from the mental abuse Curtis put her through, and being in the early stages of pregnancy. Plenty of women get asked “When are you due?” when they’re not pregnant, so why not the other way around?

DREAMGIRLS may not be a perfect show, but I honestly don’t get attacking the book. No, it’s not high art, but it’s a pretty solid story in my opinion. I do think the film improved on a few things, mainly Jimmy’s story, although I understand why the cast of the Broadway musical objected to Jimmy dying. They wanted the show to be an overall positive representation of black culture, and having a character addicted to drugs and ultimately dying would’ve hampered that. Still, I think his death adds a bit of edge that the stage version is missing.