Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
#1Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:03pm
Sorry if this has already been posted somewhere and I missed it:
"Christopher B. Manos, producer of Theater of the Stars in Atlanta, announced that the troupe's 2007 season will feature original Dreamgirls star Jennifer Holliday playing the role that made her famous.
Holliday won a Best Actress Tony Award playing Effie, the troubled star of a legendary female singing group in Michael Bennett's dazzling, legendary 1981 production about fame in the Motown era.
The revival of the Henry Krieger-Tom Eyen musical (now a popular Golden Globe-winning film) will be produced in association with this year's National Black Arts Festival this summer. All TOTS shows play the grand Fox Theatre in Atlanta. Dreamgirls will run July 19-29."
Playbill article
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#2re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:11pmShe's technically several decades too old to play the role now but.. all the more power to her!
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
MovieGuy1031
Broadway Star Joined: 11/13/06
#2re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:12pm
Ummm... hmm. Thats, uh. Interesting...?
*scratches head*
"The nice thing about the rain is that it always stops... eventually."
- Eeyore
- Eeyore
#3re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:15pmOh lord. The ego has landed.
WSS2
Featured Actor Joined: 5/15/03
#4re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:16pm
Introducing the new Carol Channing...
Well..actually Carol did play other roles.
#5re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:17pmWell, it would still be cool to see her do this role.
Flaunt It
Broadway Star Joined: 10/26/05
#6re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:24pmShe did this in Atlanta not that long ago. This is nothing new. If you want to see an exercise in overbloated ego.. go see this. The show might as well be named EFFIE. The audience talks to her and she actually talks back to them. It is a FABULOUS tacky night of Jennifer chewing the scenery, pulling focus and trouncing on her costars lines. The one great thing is she does pad herself for the beginning of the show... then in I AM CHANGING when the spot closes in on her face she does the dress trick and she is thin for the end of the song.
#7re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:32pm
Jennifer Holliday also played this role in the early 90s in a mini-tour - and was apparently not good. The term "parody of her former self" was heard a lot. She is of course to old for the role (though TUTS is one of the biggest theatres in the country) but that aside -- Holliday was guided to her Tony Award by Michael Bennett who beat that performance out of her.
I imagine with her venom from the movie still fresh in her mouth, she'll be more out of control than ever. Now I want to see it!
#8re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:32pmMark Lester (original movie OLIVER) has agreed to return to to the role that made him famous, in an upcoming revival. He's brushing up his soprano.
Bring Disney's "Der Glockner Von Notre Dame" To Broadway!
http://musicalkid.multiply.com/
http://musicalkid.multiply.com/
#9re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:32pmI'm DYING to see this after Flaunt It's report.
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
#10re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:34pmWanna hitchhike to Atlanta together?
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
MovieGuy1031
Broadway Star Joined: 11/13/06
#11re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:35pm
I'm counting the minutes until she sings it on the red carpet.
I pray every night that in the middle of her song, J-Hud will just walk up behind her, hit her with a folding chair, and walk into the theatre to accept her Oscar.
"The nice thing about the rain is that it always stops... eventually."
- Eeyore
- Eeyore
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#12re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:35pmI wish I could go, just so I could yell out "Jennifer we all have pain!"
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#13re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:37pmIt's a date, AC!
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
#14re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:39pmI'll pack my fat suit and my beehive wig and we can do our own Dreamgirls on the side of the road.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#15re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:43pm
I'll pack my beehive wig.
The fat suit is not necessary for all of us.
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#16re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:49pm
Yup! This isn't any revelatory news -- I saw her play Effie at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta back in 2002 (Ramona Keller was Lorrell and Eugene Fleming was Jimmy Early). Her acting had semi-improved from her original early 80's run in the show, but not by much -- this time she somewhat faded into the background.
Though it was a recreation of the original Broadway staging, one thing was altered for Miss Holliday: the staging of the ending of Act 1.
In the original Broadway staging, as Effie hits the final note of "And I Am Telling You...", the dressing table she is sitting at slides back into the darkness as she reaches out to the audience while The Dreams come on stage (blocking her) doing "Love Love Me, Baby" as the curtain comes down. The film recreated this idea, having The Dreams take Effie's moment, yet...again.
NOT in the 2002 Atlanta production. This time, when Effie hits the final note of "And I Am Telling You...", a scrim behind her reveals The Dreams in silhouette doing "Love Love Me, Baby". This time around, Effie is still center stage, in her full glory as the curtain comes down ending Act 1.
'Nuff said. 
thevolleyballer
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/29/04
#17re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:53pmI'm just nervous that she might forget the lyrics, or possibly some of the melody. It's been too long since she's last performed it...
#18re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:55pm
This is... cool.
But is she gonna wear a fat-suit or put on more weight?
I mean... come on.
Jumpin' the shark?
#19re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 9:06pmI believe, WSS2, we have indeed found the next Carol Channing. Interestingly enough, Carol did it great without Gower Champion. I wonder how Holliday wil do without, as Michael Bennett has said, that little nutcase of a genius named Michael Bennet. Wait, that sounded weird. In short, I second everything everyone has said.
#20re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 9:12pm
Yawn.
Surprise, surprise.
"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
Updated On: 2/20/07 at 09:12 PM
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
#21re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 9:12pmHow do they justify a woman nearing 50 playing a teenager.
#22re: Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 9:15pm
Ethel Merman played a teenager in her forties in Annie Get Your Gun. Mary Martin was nearing 50 when she originated the role of Maria in The Sound of Music. Gwen Verdon was 49 or 50 when she played the very young Roxie Hart. Mary Martin (again) was in her early 40s when she played a young boy in Peter Pan. Chita Rivera played a role written for a younger actress in Kiss of the Spider Woman and did it a helluva lot better than any 21 year old may I say.
It is "the theatre." Happens all the time. It's just that she hasn't played anything else since...ever!
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#23Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 9:21pm
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IIIIIIIIIIIII
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TTTTTEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLINNNNN'
YYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUWAH
Flaunt It
Broadway Star Joined: 10/26/05
#24Jennifer Holliday WILL play Effie again
Posted: 2/20/07 at 9:24pmTHe role of Roxie was written for Gwen. Roxie is a chorus girl past her prime.. Gwen was the perfect age.
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