NY Times Article on the Dreamgirls Movie

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 5:09pm

"IT’S the opening night of the director Michael Bennett’s musical “Dreamgirls” at the Imperial Theater on Broadway, December 1981. In the last row of the top balcony, a young screenwriter leaps to his feet and cheers along as the actress Jennifer Holliday — playing a girl-group singer who has just been dumped by the man who is her manager and lover — delivers her tear-your-heart-out torch song, “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.” In a stunning moment that gives the lie to her lyrics, she vanishes behind a wall of rotating mirrors that dazzle and shift to reveal three fabulously dressed women who have stolen her place on the stage and are singing up a Motown storm as the curtain falls for intermission.

Dissolve to April 2006. On a shaggy street in South Central Los Angeles, Bill Condon, still boyish after 25 years and now a director and Oscar-winning screenwriter, savors the memory of that night as he takes a break from shooting his $70 million version of “Dreamgirls,” starring Beyoncé, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Danny Glover and an “American Idol” finalist, Jennifer Hudson, as Effie White, the character originally played by Jennifer Holliday.

“I was really in awe of Michael Bennett’s talent, because you could see him pushing the form in a work that was completely cinematic and never stopped moving,” said Mr. Condon, who adapted the stage musical’s book by Tom Eyen. “There are so many uncanny mirror images and parallels involved in our production, but the most important for me was to reflect the soul of the original stage version, yet still make it our own unique thing that speaks to younger audiences who had never seen the Broadway show.”

Much like the group whose ghetto-to-glam rise it tracks, “Dreamgirls” became a sensation at its opening. And it kept its Motown-inspired musical motors revving through six Tony Awards and 1,521 performances. (In his review in The New York Times, Frank Rich declared that “Broadway history was made at the end of the first act.”)

Mr. Condon and the producers, DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures, hope to replicate that sensation when the movie opens in selected cities on Dec. 21, 25 years to the month after the show’s opening night. Toward that end, they have cast the pop star Beyoncé as Deena Jones. Like the musical, she is 25, and like her character, who is based on Diana Ross of the Supremes, she was the lead singer in a black female trio, Destiny’s Child, before moving on to solo stardom.

Beyoncé, however, politely insists that the similarities stop there. “Initially, I was afraid audiences would think this is my life story,” she said. “But I don’t see myself at all in this performance, which is exactly what I wanted. My own vocal style isn’t nearly as laid back as Deena’s, and it was amazingly difficult for me to sing so restrained and poised and still deliver all that soul. Every blink had to be perfect.”

She says she “pored over” tapes of Ms. Ross in performance to prepare for the role. “It was really strange how sometimes I felt I was channeling Diana Ross,” she said.

With its marquee touting three black actors who are among the most bankable figures in the entertainment world, the casting of “Dreamgirls” mirrors the crossover phenomenon its story tells. The movie follows Curtis, an ambitious Detroit manager, played by Mr. Foxx, who hustles a local 1960’s black singing group from obscurity to the top of the charts.

“This movie is living proof that what was once the black counterculture has now become the music and movie mainstream,” Mr. Condon said, adding, “We’re at the moment now when the promise of the black Motown explosion of the 60’s has been fully realized.”


For the rest of the article, click on:



After Conquering ‘Chicago,’ It’s On to Motown

Updated On: 9/10/06 at 05:09 PM

[Smaxie]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 5:28pm

It's a nice article, although were there rotating mirrors at the moment when Effie is pulled upstage? I just remember she's pulled upstage, and a curtain drops, while the Dreams enter to do "Love Love You Baby".

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 5:36pm

No rotating mirrors. She hits the last "Meeeeeeee....", the light towers rotate, she's pulled quickly upstage on her palette, the curtain quickly descends in front of her as the Dreams enter downstage left singing "Love Love You Baby."

[Smaxie]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 5:41pm

So what happened to these rotating mirrors the NY Times speaks of? I want to see rotating mirrors!

Seriously, could the writer be thinking of A Chorus Line?

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 5:49pm

He must have seen "And I'm Tellin' You All I Really Needed Was the Music and the Mirror."

Jennifer's dance break was AMAZING, by the way!

...And Margo, this is an old article that must be resurfacing in syndication now. I've read this exact piece a couple of times already... months ago.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 5:58pm

"The name on everybody's lips is gonna be ......Ef-fie!"

The only thing that could have improved that Act I closer would have been Jennifer doing high kicks and being carried around the stage by "her boys" in those ugly brown stretch pants and that pink maternity top.

[Mirth]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 6:10pm

I'm afraid to ask, but did "I Am Changing" remain in the movie??
Did Ms. Hudson get to keep it?
Must have missed this in a previous post.
Thanks.
Updated On: 9/10/06 at 06:10 PM

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 7:01pm

"...And Margo, this is an old article that must be resurfacing in syndication now. I've read this exact piece a couple of times already... months ago."

Are you sure you're not talking about another article that starts out talking about Condon seeing the original production? I don't recall seeing the quotes from Beyonce and the comments about how AIATY is staged in the movie on the net before.

[CurtisTaylorJr2]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 7:09pm

"I Am Changing" is in the movie

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 7:10pm

The only major song that I've heard is gone is "Ain't No Party" (which is replaced by another song, "Patience" I believe)

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 8:52pm

Mr. Midwest---I'm sure. It may have run on the west coast in Parade Magazine... but I've read this exact same piece word-for-word before.

Still, for those who missed it, or didn't read it, I'm glad Margo posted it.

Oh... and Margo... did you HAVE to go and remind me about those ugly brown stretch pants and that pink maternity top??? I'm amazed she had enough confidence to make it through the number every night wearing THAT.

Now THAT's talent!

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 8:58pm

"Mr. Midwest---I'm sure. It may have run on the west coast in Parade Magazine... but I've read this exact same piece word-for-word before."

I believe you, but just because you're cute.

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 9:01pm

There's also a great article on THB movie

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 9:13pm

MrMidwest--LOL!

Boy, is THAT a license to kill.



Thanks for making me laugh!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 9:15pm

Best12 --

I've heard more than one actress who played Effie express their HATRED for that outfit.

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 9:22pm

I don't doubt it, Margo.

Short of a foam rubber clown nose... there ain't much missin' in that get-up of "pretty."

[Mirth]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 11:05pm

I heard that Victoria and Patti are mud wrestling in that very costume. gotta go check on them....




Updated On: 9/10/06 at 11:05 PM