Jenifer Lewis fun fact
Jenifer Lewis fun fact
#1Jenifer Lewis fun fact
Posted: 4/9/15 at 7:52pm
Just found out that character actress Jenifer Lewis originated the role of Effie White during the workshop of "Dreamgirls", only to lose the role to Jennifer Holliday. Just think that if she had played the part there wouldn't be an 80-year old woman still trying to play the same part she played in the 70s...
#2Jenifer Lewis fun fact
Posted: 4/9/15 at 10:34pm
Or maybe Jenifer Lewis would be trying to play the same part?
Also, Dreamgirls opened in 1981 and Jennifer Holiday is only 54 years old (which is younger than my own father).
Visceral_Fella
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/18/12
#2Jenifer Lewis fun fact
Posted: 4/10/15 at 1:45am
Jenifer Lewis? You mean Nell Carter? That's who did the workshops is Dreamgirls and who the writers had in mind.
#3Jenifer Lewis fun fact
Posted: 4/10/15 at 2:55am
Visceral_Fella, I honestly had no clue who Jenifer Lewis was (and had to google her), but I thought the same thing, that OP meant Nell Carter as that's who I thought the role was meant for. I adore her and her voice, I would have loved to hear her sing those songs. She was gone too soon.
#4Jenifer Lewis fun fact
Posted: 4/10/15 at 3:59am
The workshop Effie's, in succession, were Nell Carter > Jennifer Holliday > Jenifer Lewis > Jennifer Holliday.
Jenifer Lewis does a LOT of shouting. I can't imagine what her Effie sounded like.
http://unsungbroadway.com/video-archives-one-night-only-dreamgirls-opens-on-broadway-in-1981/
Updated On: 4/10/15 at 03:59 AM
#5Jenifer Lewis fun fact
Posted: 4/10/15 at 7:08am
I don't know that we want to hear Jenifer Lewis' Deana, but the lady can sing pretty well and really act. Be sure and catch her TV movie (a parody of show biz bios) called JACKIE'S BACK, from 1999.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0202409/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_63
Nell Carter, like Jennifer Holliday, was a unique, world-class singer who also walked on water, as far as I'm concerned. But I've never heard her sing what we have called "R&B" since the 1970s. Perhaps because she was known for AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' she tended to sing what was called R&B back in the first half of the 20th century, i.e., what we would now call "standards".
DREAMGIRLS might have had a somewhat different score with Carter in the cast.
#6Jenifer Lewis fun fact
Posted: 4/10/15 at 7:30pm
I found this information out from the World of Wonder website. I have been a huge fan of Jenifer Lewis ever since I saw her as a Harlette for Bette Midler's "De Tour" in the 1980s. Loved her is "What's Love Got To Do With It" also...
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