Effie White -- Does She Have To Be "Heavy?"- Page 8
Effie White -- Does She Have To Be "Heavy?"
seaweedjstubbs
Broadway Star Joined: 3/21/07
#175re: Effie White -- Does She Have To Be 'Heavy?'
Posted: 5/12/20 at 4:11pm
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.
Malinda5000
Stand-by Joined: 6/19/16
#176re: Effie White -- Does She Have To Be 'Heavy?'
Posted: 5/12/20 at 8:22pm
Sorry Margo. Julia McGirt was NOT tall and thin during her run as Effie. She was not as big as Jennifer became, but she was not thin nor tall. She was curvy let's say but far from thin. Yes her voice was one of a kind and in MY opinion she was a better Effie than Jennifer. She would hold her notes during AIATY especially on the "you're gonna love meeeeeeeeeeeee". The audience would go nuts. I was an usher back in the day at several theatre's so I saw the Entire run of Dreamgirls OBC. Ms. McGirt or Julia Nixon nowadays was in Caroline or Change a few years back...unfortunate for me I did not see her in it.
Updated On: 5/12/20 at 08:22 PM
rattleNwoolypenguin
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/11/11
#177re: Effie White -- Does She Have To Be 'Heavy?'
Posted: 5/12/20 at 9:41pm
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
#178re: Effie White -- Does She Have To Be 'Heavy?'
Posted: 5/12/20 at 9:45pm
This should be Julia McGirt when she replaced Jennifer, for reference
ggersten
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
#179re: Effie White -- Does She Have To Be 'Heavy?'
Posted: 5/12/20 at 9:51pm
I just want to know who I saw in June 1983! I have no playbill....
Malinda5000
Stand-by Joined: 6/19/16
#180re: Effie White -- Does She Have To Be 'Heavy?'
Posted: 5/13/20 at 12:05am
imeldasturn said: "
This should be Julia McGirt when she replaced Jennifer, for reference"
Yup. That's Julia McGirt.
Malinda5000
Stand-by Joined: 6/19/16
#181re: Effie White -- Does She Have To Be 'Heavy?'
Posted: 5/13/20 at 12:07am
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.
#182re: Effie White -- Does She Have To Be 'Heavy?'
Posted: 5/13/20 at 1:46am
I like this tread, but in Frank Rich's opening night review, he not only mentions the character is fat, but he describes Holiday as "a young woman with a broad face and an ample body" (emphasis mine). At the time of the Tony's (admittedly half a year later) she was big.
Just not sure, for all the great information in the OP, that one can say when Holiday stared out in the role, she wasn't heavy.
#183re: Effie White -- Does She Have To Be 'Heavy?'
Posted: 5/13/20 at 2:30am
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.
tomwsjr
Leading Actor Joined: 5/9/05
#184re: Effie White -- Does She Have To Be 'Heavy?'
Posted: 5/13/20 at 5:56am
Does anyone have memories of Sheila Ellis as Effie? She was Jennifer’s original understudy and went on often.
tmdonahue
Understudy Joined: 2/15/18
#185re: Effie White -- Does She Have To Be 'Heavy?'
Posted: 5/13/20 at 8:37am
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.
#186re: Effie White -- Does She Have To Be 'Heavy?'
Posted: 5/13/20 at 3:52pm
tomwsjr said: "Does anyone have memories of Sheila Ellis as Effie? She was Jennifer’s original understudy and went on often."
I saw the show the day after Jennifer left. Would she have been on? If so, that is who I saw.
Just give the world Love.
#187re: Effie White -- Does She Have To Be 'Heavy?'
Posted: 5/13/20 at 4:12pm
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.
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Updated On: 5/13/20 at 04:12 PM
#188re: Effie White -- Does She Have To Be 'Heavy?'
Posted: 5/13/20 at 7:20pm
Malinda5000 said: "Sorry Margo. Julia McGirt was NOT tall and thin during her run as Effie. She was not as big as Jennifer became, but she was not thin nor tall. She was curvy let's say but far from thin. Yes her voice was one of a kind and in MY opinion she was a better Effie than Jennifer. She would hold her notes during AIATY especially on the "you're gonna love meeeeeeeeeeeee". The audience would go nuts. I was an usher back in the day at several theatre's so I saw the Entire run of Dreamgirls OBC. Ms. McGirt or Julia Nixon nowadays was in Caroline or Change a few years back...unfortunate for me I did not see her in it."
I believe Margo is no longer with us. That being said it was really great reading one his posts. He was a cherished member of this forum and he is dearly missed by those who were fortunate enough to have interacted with him here and who knew him personally outside of this forum.
#189re: Effie White -- Does She Have To Be 'Heavy?'
Posted: 5/13/20 at 7:37pm
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.
Malinda5000
Stand-by Joined: 6/19/16
#190re: Effie White -- Does She Have To Be 'Heavy?'
Posted: 5/13/20 at 7:41pm
tomwsjr said: "Does anyone have memories of Sheila Ellis as Effie? She was Jennifer’s original understudy and went on often.
Yes. I saw Sheila Ellis go on for Jennifer a LOT and she was...well...so so. Her rendition of AIATY would still get rousing applause because she had some strong vocals and she would do these amazing riffs but that's about it. She did sing a great "I Am Changing" though. In her defense she didn't have to stop the show with that number. Of course, when she would go on as Effie, the show was new and a MAJOR hit and Jennifer Holliday was the Toast of Broadway, so I think Sheila tried too hard to not disappoint. The audience used to be pissed when it was announced that Holliday was absent so the pressure was on Sheila but she did her thing....just so so. It was VERY hard to be an understudy for Jennifer's Effie.
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