I had the privilege of seeing the South African premiere production of Dreamgirls at the Teatro theatre last night. Even with the cover on for Deena (the Beyonce role in the movie) I was bowled over by every aspect of the show. It's never been one of my favourite soundtracks. Only a few songs got my foot tapping and some recordings of "And I Am Telling You" just leave me wishing the singer would go away. But every song sounded fresh and new. Another thing that usually bothers me with musicals is the transitions from acting into singing. Actors often heighten the way they speak the text to "meet" the song rather than letting their emotions drive them to transition into music and it all just ends up sounding insincere. Well not last night. Many of the performers come purely from a singing background and tv reality shows like Idols, Pop Stars and Project Fame; but their accents, characterisation and focus were better than some supposedly trained actors I've worked with. Effie is a revelation. The Zambian who won Project Fame Africa seems to have achieved such an enormous amount in her own country that she had to relocate to Joburg to find something else to do. Effie is not just a hard role to sing but if you play her wrong she can come across as unsympathetic. But when Lindiwe sang "what about me... what about MY dreams" with such tenderness, I empathised rather than thinking she was nothing but a bratty diva. I saw a woman whose dream was being taken from her and who didn't know how to fight back. There were so many beautiful nuances in her performance and she was so comfortable inhabiting this woman that you would have thought she was living all that disappointment. Obviously "And I Am Telling You" was heart-breakingly good, as was "One Night Only". But her highlight for me was "Listen", which was written for the movie but is now a duet between Effie and Deena. The two woman forgive each other and Effie advises Deena to leave the man she never had the strength to leave. Another highlight of the show was Candida Mosoma as Lorrell. (Candi was Mary Magdalene in the first run of Jesus Christ Superstar that I did in South Africa).I barely remember this role in the movie but she is by far the most fabulous character in the show for me. Candi simply sparkled every time she set foot on stage. Her delivery and use of her face and body made me believe I was actually seeing a girl grow into a woman on stage. She was hilarious and sang the material so well I kept wondering why SHE wasn't the lead singer of the Dreams. She was no backup singer! And then I found out afterwards that the ENT has her booked off and she actually sang on cortisone. Wow! Jimmy certainly did have soul! He sang like James Brown and looked like Prince. I was dubious about his acting ability when I saw he was a Coca-Cola Pop Star competition winner and this is his first show. But he was fantastic in every. He looked like he had channeled some crotch-thrusting maniac from the 60's that would have had woman throwing panties at him. Curtis was solid and sang the role well. I can't fault him but maybe because of the nature of the character I just didn't see why he was worth falling for. Michelle - the new Dreamgirl - was a lovely bit of casting. She IS a showgirl with a list of extravaganzas to her name and it showed. Some of the costumes are so ugly you want to gouge your eyes out but you can't say they're boring. The sound balance wasn't quite right. The Deena understudy clearly needed a little more help in the mix. While she did an admirable job she never fully made the transition from young girl to diva/star for me and her accent did drop a little toward the end. She did do a beautiful job in the more emotional scenes, especially "You Are My Dream", "Listen" and when she finally walks out on Curtis. Technically the show is just jaw dropping. I let a few "holy f!#*'s" slip out at some of the quick changes and the Busby-Berkleyesque moments in "Stepping to the Bad Side". I will definitely be watching the show again in Cape Town. After crying your eyes out every night in drab black, brown and grey costumes in Evita I need some sequins and a happy ending.
