The following year, Jimmy has descended into drug addiction due to Curtis' focus on Deena, along with the rejection of the charity single he recorded. "There are girl group songs that are based on blues progressions But there's also some that sound more like Tin Pan Alley songsalmost like Broadway numbers.". [45] The film's Los Angeles premiere was held on December 11 at the Wilshire Theater in Beverly Hills. Some might even remember the 1981 Broadway production with Jennifer Holliday. When Early flames out, Curtis makes the Dreamettes into . Cast & Crew; Dreamgirls - Full Cast & Crew. [7] Willie Reale wrote the lyrics for "Patience," a song performed in the film by Jimmy, Lorrell, C.C., and a gospel choir, as the characters attempt to record a message song for Jimmy. Just as it's gaining local radio play, Curtis uses payola to force radio stations to play The Dreams' disco cover of the song. [78], At the Academy Awards ceremony on February 25, 2007, Dreamgirls won Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and Best Sound Mixing. The Motown sound was characterized by a straight-forward, grounded beat (bass and drums) and melodic hook. Nat King Cole reached the charts in 1946 with "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66," which made the top ten. Cast members of Munopco Music Theatre's "Dreamgirls," left to right: Taylor Hood, Krystle Tate, Arianna Rodriguez and Rebekah Gray. 5, 537553. "Dreamgirls" draws its story from the relationship between the Supremes and Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr., although the end result is pure fiction, cinema and musical theater. [31], Dreamgirls received eight 2007 Academy Award nominations covering six categories, the most of any film for the year, although it was not nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, or either of the lead acting categories. [95][96] The photo shoot montage which accompanies "When I First Saw You", as well as the subplot of Deena being forced to star in Curtis' Cleopatra film against her will, reflect both scenes from and the production of Mahogany, a 1975 Motown film starring Diana Ross and directed by Motown CEO Berry Gordy. So the emblem of the teenage girl is being imbued with a lot of political significance. "We were all surprised when 'Postman' hit so big," she says. [84] The Dreamgirls soundtrack was also nominated for the Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album. [citation needed] In addition, the Tonnor Doll Company released "The Dreamettes" collection, featuring dolls of the characters Deena, Lorrell, and Effie, to coincide with the release of the film. [9] Dreamgirls received eight NAACP Image Award nominations, winning for Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Hudson) and Outstanding Album (the soundtrack LP). He eventually drops Effie, hiring his secretary Michelle Morris to replace her beginning with their 1966 New Year's Eve debut in Las Vegas as "Deena Jones & the Dreams." [36] Originally scheduled to be shot in one day, Condon was forced to ask for extra time and money to finish shooting the "And I Am Telling You" scene, as Hudson's voice would give out after four hours of shooting the musical number, and she was unable to plausibly lip-sync while hoarse. [107] Gordy was highly suspected, though never proven, to have used Mafia-backed loans to finance Motown during its later years.[108]. He appoints the slimmer, more conventionally attractive Deena as the new lead singer, renaming them "The Dreams". Horn players would never run all over the stage as they do in "Dreamgirls" or they would be too out of breath to play the instruments. [5][47][48] The film's national release, at regular prices, began on December 25. [84], For the opening performance at the 2007 BET Awards on June 26 of that year, Hudson performed a duet of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" with her predecessor, Jennifer Holliday. American Idol's Jennifer Hudson as the Supremes' Florence Ballard? In any case, neither Franklin nor James ever belonged to the Supremes. Furthermore, Dreamgirls was nominated for eleven 2007 International Press Academy Satellite Awards, and won four of the awards: Best Picture Comedy or Musical, Best Director (Bill Condon), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Jennifer Hudson), and Best Sound (Mixing & Editing). [7] "Listen", with additional music by Scott Cutler and Beyonc, and lyrics by Anne Preven, is presented as a defining moment for Deena's character late in the film. But The Beatles themselves were obsessed with American girl groups and even sang girl group songs, including "Please Mr. Postman," The Shirelles' "Baby It's You" and The Cookies' "Chains. In 1961, The Shirelles reached number one on the pop charts with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" In an era of cultural upheaval, girl groups helped articulate the personal experiences of teenagersof all raceswho were living through tremendous political upheaval. (Black Public Relations Wire) ", Christian, Margena A (Dec. 7, 2006). The girls rarely wrote their own songs, but neither did the male groups of the time. These dark moments, where shadows fall across the dazzling film, resonated with truth. Dreamgirls . [17], When Geffen co-founded DreamWorks in 1994 and dissolved Geffen Pictures, the rights to Dreamgirls remained with Warner Bros. Warner planned to go ahead with the film with director Joel Schumacher and screenwriter Tina Andrews[7] in the late 1990s, following the success of Touchstone Pictures's Tina Turner biopic What's Love Got to Do with It. [7] The film marks the acting debut of Hudson, a former American Idol contestant. [23], The most crucial casting decision involved the role of Effie White, the emotional center of the story. [60] Roeper still enjoyed the film, noting that Jennifer Hudson's rendition of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" as the "show-stopping moment of any film of 2006" and very much enjoyed Murphy's performance as well, remarking that "people are going to love this film. Dreamgirls is the first live-action film to receive three nominations for Best Song; previously the Disney animated features Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Lion King (1994) had each received three Academy Award nominations for Best Song; Enchanted (2007) has since repeated the feat. Instead the score is standard issue Broadway fare, decorated with a few drumbeats and occasional light disco drive, that stays heavy on narrative subtext, allowing the songs to comment on the story line. Gaye was not only Motown's chief solo male vocal star, he was married to Gordy's sister. He looks like Ike Turner, borrows his stage moves from Wilson and has some Marvin Gaye hovering over his character. Privacy Statement "Introduction". [56], Rolling Stone's Peter Travers gave the film three and a half stars (out of four) and the number-two position on his "best of 2006" list, stating that "despite transitional bumps, Condon does Dreamgirls proud". Similarities to Aretha Franklin, however, are also hardly coincidental. [41], Four new songs were added for the film: "Love You I Do", "Patience", "Perfect World," and "Listen. 2012. It was a time for people to forget who they are and just get with each other to be happy and loving and dance and rejoice. Dreamgirls is a 2006 American musical drama film written and directed by Bill Condon and jointly produced and released by DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures. So they're sitting at home or gathering at a friend's house or they're sitting on the bench during basketball practice at school, and doing the same kind of thingharmonizing and making up songs. Dreamgirls premiered on December 4, 2006 at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City, where it received a standing ovation. And even if it gets much more right than it does wrong, "Dreamgirls" is still an imagining of the rough and gritty life of the R&B performer, a pop musical divertissement rather than an earthy, true-to-life account. "Come and get these memories: gender, history and racial uplift in Bill Condon's Dreamgirls". "If you think about the Little Rock Nine in Arkansas in 1967," she says, "of nine black teenagers chosen to integrate the schools, six of them were girls. White,[24] but contract negotiations failed; Usher was unable to dedicate half a year to the project. [74] Some journalists registered shock,[75] while others cited a "backlash". The DVD version was issued in two editions: a one-disc standard version and a two-disc "Showstopper Edition". "[39] All of the new songs feature music composed by original Dreamgirls stage composer Henry Krieger. ", The only girl group able to compete with The Beatles on the American charts was The Supremes, who maintained popularity into the early 1970s, even though Diana Ross had left the group. [4], Mark and Condon began pre-production with the intentions of casting Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy, both actors with record industry experience, as Curtis Taylor, Jr. and James "Thunder" Early, respectively. He also brought in professional choreographers. She is an Academy Award-winning actress, Grammy Award-winning recording artist and best-selling author. Dreamgirls debuted in four special road show engagements starting on December 15, 2006, before its nationwide release on December 25, 2006. Wilson's own film double, character Lorrell Robinson played by Anika Noni Rose, is nothing like her, she says. Sometime later, C.C., who feels Curtis is undermining his songs' artistic merit by making them into disco music, quits the label. Hudson was required to be rude and come in late both on set and off, and she and Condon went over Effie's lines and scenes throughout the week. These grown-up themes contrast with The Shangri-Las singing healsongs about teenage drama. Teenage life became synonymous with pop culture, and with many of these teenagers having money to spend, the record market flourished. Both the Blu-ray and HD DVD versions were issued in two-disc formats. [40] Several musical numbers from the Broadway score were not included in the film version, in particular Lorrell's solo "Ain't No Party". What is the Dreamgirls story based on? As a result, more than fifty high schools, colleges, community theaters, and other non-commercial theater entities staged productions of Dreamgirls in 2006, and DreamWorks spent up to $250,000 subsidizing the licensing. For instance, "Please Mr. Postman" is in some ways a classic girl group song, with a girl waiting for a letter from a boy. [16] The roles of many of the characters were related more closely to their real-life inspirations, following a suggestion by Geffen. [23], Loretta Devine, who played Lorrell in the original Broadway production, has a cameo as a jazz singer who performs the song "I Miss You Old Friend. [19][34] The scene was felt by everyone involved to be pivotal to the film, as "And I Am Telling You" was Jennifer Holliday's show-stopping number in the original Broadway musical. The connection between the fictional Dreams and the real-life Supremes is underlined by costume designer Sharen Davis, whose magnificent creations accurately echo the outlandish outfits Ross, Wilson and Ballard used to wriggle into. As much as Deena Jones, Beyonc Knowles' character in "Dreamgirls," was modeled on Diana Ross, the film's main character, Effie White, was based on Etta James, according to composer Henry Krieger. [8] Dreamgirls earned a total of $851,664 from the roadshow engagements, playing to sold-out houses on the weekends. The movie, based on the 1981 Broadway play, tells the story of a small black record label and its star singers whose success crosses over to the pop charts. The film, and the original Broadway musical, are based heavily on The Supremes (later known as "Diana Ross & The Supremes"). Answer. The slogan for the movie's Rainbow Records ("The Sound of Tomorrow") comes right from the old Motown Records ("The Sound of Young America"). 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