Dreamgirls
Fantastic costumes, fantastic choreography, fantastic performances, and fantastic songs. What more is there to say? This production of Dreamgirls is simply supreme, supreme, supreme!!! (There, I said it. Sue me if you dare!)
Theatre Royal
Almost forty years after 'Dreamgirls' first opened on Broadway, the UK touring version of the show originally written by Tom Eyen and Henry Kreiger has arrived at Norwich Theatre Royal. But, as it is famously said of that creamy dark stout from Dublin, 'Good things come to those who wait'.
Many will have already seen the 2006 film adaptation directed by Bill Condon, with Jennifer Hudson starring as Effy White, Beyoncé as Deena Jones and Anika Noni Rose as Lorrell Johnson. But, as everybody knows, there is no substitute for a real live show, and we must express our appreciation and thanks to Norwich Theatre Royal for bringing 'Dreamgirls' to Norfolk, and giving us the chance to see and hear this fictional musical drama (although it has been pointed out that there are some remarkable similarities between the 'Dreamgirls' plot and the real-life tale of Motown's Diana Ross and The Supremes).
The story begins in Harlem, where a young female singing trio from Chicago, calling themselves The Dreamettes, meet their future manager Curtis Taylor Jr (played by Dom Hartley-Jones), and are hired as backing singers for R&B star James 'Thunder' Early (Brandon Lee Sears). Taylor decides to re-launch Early as a TV-friendly crooner, and change The Dreamettes into The Dreams, giving them a new broad-based pop sound.
Sears is excellent as James Early – narcissistic, cocksure and athletic, and a commanding presence in numbers like 'Fake Your Way To The Top' and 'Drivin' Down The Strip'. Hartley-Jones is deceptively gentle as the Machiavellian manager, but revealing his true colours in 'It's All Over' before Nicole Raquel Dennis (as Effie) absolutely steals the end of Act One with her showstopping rendition of 'And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going'. Never before have I seen an audience on their feet applauding a performance before we have even had the interval.
As Act Two opens, the Dreams have been transformed. Deena Jones (played by Natalie Kassanga and, by now, looking extremely Beyoncé-like) is now on lead vocals and backed by original member Lorrell Robinson (Paige Peddie) and with new recruit Michelle Morris (played by Brianna Ogunbawo) replacing Effie White. Nicole Raquel Dennis then produces yet another stunning moment during the courageous 'I Am Changing' – this really is turning out to be her show. The former semi-finalist from The Voice is on absolute fire tonight, and she does it again in her version of Effie's comeback song 'One Night Only'.
By the time we get to the emotional reunion between Effie and Deena, and the reprise of the title song 'Dreamgirls', the audience is almost bursting its collective sides to show their appreciation, which they do with a deserved and sustained standing ovation. This is definitely the stuff that Dreams are made of.
Fantastic costumes, fantastic choreography, fantastic performances, and fantastic songs. What more is there to say? This production of Dreamgirls is simply supreme, supreme, supreme!!! (There, I said it. Sue me if you dare!)
