Effie White -- Does She Have To Be "Heavy?" — Page 8

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.

joevitus said: "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)."

Yeah I agree.

at the end of the day it’s just the Wizard of Oz. It’s gonna be

what it is. And any time they try to make it more “hip” just makes it less hip.

I feel like The Wiz thrives best when it has a Spring Awakening approach. The only modern element is the songs and everything else stays true to the original story

I just want to know who I saw in June 1983! I have no playbill....

ggersten said: "I just want to know who I saw in June 1983! I have no playbill...."

You saw the God-awful Vanessa Townsell. Holliday's first replacement.

Updated On: 5/13/20 at 12:07 AM

rattleNwoolypenguin said: "joevitus said: "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)."

Yeah I agree.

at the end of the day it’s just the Wizardof Oz. It’s gonna be

what it is. And any time they try to make it more “hip” just makes it less hip.

I feel like The Wiz thrives best when it has a Spring Awakening approach. The only modern element is the songs and everything else stays true to the original story"

I'm not sure if I think Geoffrey Holder's Haitian-style Oz is "true to the original story" and William F. Brown's book, while not "hip" was pretending to be (in the style of a lot of 70's black sitcoms). But it worked, and the fact that revivals keep failing with new books suggest they should stick with what they had.

I admit, I'm a traditionalist: I like to see shows staged as they were originally staged.

Mostly I hope at some point we get a new cast recording, with the songs left off of the original: The Emerald City Ballet (which I seem to remember was called "Pst...," though Wikipedia doesn't list it as so), Funky Monkeys, Who Do You Think You Are?, Dorothy's version of If You Believe, and Glinda's A Rested Body is A Rested Mind.

I was distantly acquainted with Brenda Pressley who understudied Jennifer Holiday. I remember (or think I do...I'm getting old.) Brenda wore a fat suit in the first act and when she removed her overcoat while singing "I Am Changing," she was Brenda's slim self. (I Am Changing---get it?)

This may not be true.

I think I remember reading(maybe it was this thread, but I’m not interested in reading all 185 responses) Patina Miller was in the top 3 choices to play Effie in the film. It eventually went to Jennifer Hudson, of course. Curious who the third person was and whether if she was bigger or not.

Updated On: 5/13/20 at 04:12 PM

Call_me_jorge said: "I think I remember reading(maybe it was this thread, but I’m not interested in reading all 185 responses) Patina Miller was in the top 3 choices to play Effie in the film. It eventually went to Jennifer Hudson, of course. Curious who the third person was and whether ifshe was bigger or not."

Raven Symone has said she was considered, but I don't know if she was in the top 3.