Julia McGirt as Effie

[silent]

Posted: 8/10/06 at 3:53am

With all of the footage of DREAMGIRLS out there, does anyone know if there is any of Julia McGirt?

Some say she was better than Holliday while others say she was horrible. What else has she done besides DG? I'd love to see some type of footage of her.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 8/10/06 at 6:54am

She just finished a run in Caroline or Change in DC and she was absolutely marvelous.

[irememberitwell]

Posted: 8/10/06 at 9:15am

What a memorable Effie McGirt was and over twenty years later I still remember the emotional pack of her And I'm Telling You. The difference between her and Roz Ryan or Jennifer Holliday is that her singing and her acting were thoroughly integrated. Sorry to have missed her in Caroline or Change -- I would have pushed a peanut with my nose to hear her Lot's Wife. Unlike Tanya Pinkins, McGirt has the technique and discipline to marry the text with the character and not just be a masturbatory singer. Find this woman a Broadway show!

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 8/10/06 at 9:25am

She was brilliant in Caroline, or Change. Would love see her on stage again!

[morosco]

Posted: 8/10/06 at 9:51am

She goes by the name Julia Nixon now. You can hear a sample of her marvelous voice by playing track #10 (Precious Lord) once you get to the link below.

Barnes and Noble Updated On: 8/10/06 at 09:51 AM

[morosco]

Posted: 8/10/06 at 10:38am

I should add that she's one of the many Effies I saw and I thought she was magnificent. I seem to recall that she wasn't with the show for very long. Anyone have more details on her run in the show?

[ILUVTOMG]

Posted: 8/10/06 at 2:47pm

not to change the subject but i saw Vanessa Townsell who was Holiday's first replacement. I think she had been working for the phone company when she was 'discovered.' Very tall woman.. striking. I know she popped up in Ragtime years later. Shame she hasn't done anything else.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 8/10/06 at 4:19pm

Julia actually did the show for well over a year. She was first understudy to Townsell and after several months of Townsell regularly blowing out her voice and Julia going on for her several times a week, Bennett simply gave her the role and she played it for most of the following year.

She later came back to Broadway (or was it the national tour?) to do the BJ Crosby role in SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE.

She spent most of the 80s and 90s with her group Julia & Co. in DC doing a regular weekly gig at Mr. Henry's and a couple of other venues as well as tours and concerts around the country. She still performs regularly in DC as well as in Florida and other locations.

[Chip1012]

Posted: 8/10/06 at 4:23pm

How was Tonya masturbatory? You don't feel she "married the text well with the music?" Please explain further, because you can't be serious.
Updated On: 8/10/06 at 04:23 PM

[morosco]

Posted: 8/10/06 at 6:51pm

Thanks Margo for clearing that up. It must have been Townsell that I confused with McGirt as being in the show only briefly. Now it makes sense. I saw Townsell only once. McGirt I saw repeatedly and every performance was consistantly powerful.

[silent]

Posted: 8/11/06 at 3:26am

Thanks for that audio clip and pic and update. She has a very soulful voice.

[gonnapassmealaw]

Posted: 9/4/06 at 2:13am

She was a revelation in Caroline, or Change. In some parts, dare I say, I liked her better than Tonya. (Perhaps it was because I saw Tonya well into the run and her voice was not at its healthiest.) Julia Nixon's "Lot's Wife" was really wonderful, too.

[dReAmiNgAwAkE]

Posted: 9/4/06 at 10:51am

was julia or any effies in fact, able to do 8 shows a week over a long period of time. I find that everyone was blowing there voices out which is understandable. didn't they know this was gonna be impossible to do 8 shows a week. I remember margo saying that there were like 5 covers for effie? also where did julia train or just a natural born actress!?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/4/06 at 2:41pm

Julia graduated from North Carolina School of the Arts. I believe her degree was in voice, but I'm not 100% sure of that (she took a lot of acting classes as well). She studied opera extensively while there and participated in the opera workshops, playing Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly and Aida among others (she also had her own r&b band on the side while she was there). She credits the voice training she received during that time with giving her the foundation and stamina that has sustained her throughout her career. Even singing Effie and doing many gospel concerts over the years, she always sings with the proper placement allowing her to belt endlessly without causing damage to her instrument.

Julia had one of the best track records playing Effie on Broadway. She did, in fact, do 8 shows a week for several months without missing and were it not for a vocal crisis several months into her run, her attendance would have been near perfect. The reason for her crisis -- and she's told this story on stage, so I don't feel like I'm violating any confidences -- was that she received a phone call shortly before going on one night from her family informing her that her father had suffered a serious heart attack and had been rushed to the hospital. While she could have (and probably should have) had an understudy go on for her, since it was too late to get a flight out to be with him that evening, she decided to go ahead and do the show. Well, she was so emotionaly distraught not knowing whether her father was alive or dead, she poured all of that emotion into her performance, forgetting everything about pacing herself through the role that she blew out her voice. By the time she got to "And I Am Telling You" her voice was in tatters, but she forged ahead, sobbing her way through to the Act I curtain. Michael Bennett happened to be in the back watching that night and ran back stage immediately when the curtain fell. He ran up to her and said excitedly, "Julia, that was the greatest acting performance I've ever seen in my life!" to which she raspily responded, in tears, "Michael, my father may be dead and I lost my voice." He hugged her and took her back to her dressing room. She flew out the next morning.

Her father did survive that night incidentally, though he did pass away from another heart attack a few years later. She left the show, had to go on complete vocal rest for over a month and with the help of vocal therapist, regained her voice and rejoined the show, doing Effie for the rest of the year, without incident.

Aside from that crisis, Julia rarley missed performances and was (probably due to her training) one of the few who was able to handle the role for long stretches. Whenever Dreamgirls is revived -- which likely won't be until a couple of years after the film comes out -- it might make sense to have a separate actress cover the matinees (as they do for Eva in Evita). There aren't many people out there who can sing the role of Effie White and of those who can, few have been trained to sing 8 shows a week, so rather than constantly relying on understudies to keep the show running (after Holliday left the show Bennett made sure there were always 3-4 ready to go on at any time), perhaps a matinee alternate would relieve enough of the strain on the main person.