Dreamgirls, which is set to begin filming this fall, may turn out to be another triumph for director Bill Condon (he wrote the screenplay for Chicago, as well as directed the homo-positive Kinsey and Gods and Monsters). It may even pave the way, along with Rent and The Producers (also in production), for a new era of zany musicals that make little tykes go totally light in the loafers. But whatever the merits of the cast or the ingenious rewrites they will need to do on that horrible score, this dream will surely be an absolute nightmare for its chief inspiration, Diana Ross.
What would you say was the worst of all the indignities Diana Ross has had to weather recently? Shall we review, for a moment, her greatest hits?
There was the diva-size commotion in Heathrow airport when she jiggled a female security guard’s breast. “How would you like it,” she asked the stunned guard who was patting her down as part of a routine security check. “It’s disgraceful,” she fumed to strangers in the VIP lounge. “They wouldn’t touch a man’s penis, would they?” [Um...only if it were absolutely necessary.] When she insisted on boarding the plane despite setting off a metal detector, police had to escort her off in tears.
That was sad and sordid, yes, but it was but a bon-bon compared to the next sighting of Hurricane Diana: It came with the sudden and surprise release of a new film — one in which she staggered about in a daze after she was pulled over for “erratic” driving . The patrol-car footage went into heavy rotation on Hollywood Whore shows like Access Hollywood, as well as the E! Channel. Diana had been driving her white Pontiac into oncoming traffic for several blocks and somehow had not noticed. Police found she couldn’t count to 10 and was at first snappish when they suggested she had been drinking - that is, until she fell over when asked to balance on one leg. “Gee, that was great,” she said from the pavement with a silly giggle.
Yet such indignities will, we predict, pale beside the unkindest cut of all, the projected Christmas 2006 release of Dreamgirls. At some point or other, either out of vanity or simply self-protection, Diana will be forced to see herself portrayed as no more than a supporting player in the story of her life.
Dreamgirls charts the rise of the Dreams after its most talented singer, Effie,a big unglamorous girl with a rock-solid black-choir voice, is sent to the background in preference for the slinky, cooey but definitely mocha-vanilla stylings of a glamorgirl lead singer (to be played in the film by Beyonce.) The unglamorous Effie, judged less accessible to white audiences, eventually goes on to spectacular solo success. Meanwhile the Ross character forces the Dreams to disband when she slinks off to Hollywood, movie contract in hand.
Broadway legend says Ross stormed out of the theater when she first saw the show. And with good reason. The truth is that the Supremes was formed by Flo Ballard (above, at left) when the trio was in high school. When they auditioned for Berry Gordy, Diana was no glamorgirl, as anyone knows who saw the first — now rare — "Meet the Supremes" album cover. On that cover, the three girls appear in cheap, very wiggy-lookin bouffant flips (the original cover, which was quickly cycled out a few months later for a more glamorous shot, is now a pricey collector’s item.)
Though the calculus of pleasing white teenagers certainly came into every decision made at Motown, Diana was chosen for the lead because she had the most distinctive voice — a breath-catchy, lip-glossy, sex-kitten ooeyness. Her sound — sleek, sexy — distinguishes the Supremes to this day as the best girl group ever, rivaled only by the Andrew Sisters.
Flo, meanwhile, split from the group, like Effie, and tried building a solo career. Everyone likes the ugly duckling story, which the kitschy Dreamgirls is happy to serve up, but the real Effie — Flo Ballard — died broke and on welfare while she was still young. Her singing, to be candid, judging from the few times she was given a solo turn on a Supremes album, was simply average. Diana Ross has often spoken wistfully of the young Flo, acknowledging how difficult and headstrong Ballard could be, so it must be particularly galling for Diana to see herself portrayed — not as the authentic, truly exciting sensation that she was — but as a plastic no-talent pushing her way in front of the cameras.
Being played by model-beautiful Beyonce may at least provide some consolation. Also cast, in the thankless and totally invisible male roles, are Usher, Jamie Foxx and (breaking news) Eddie Murphy. (Caveat: nothing is final until shooting begins, so these names may change.)
The big question is who will play the heavyweight role of Effie. Jennifer Holliday’s stage version was legend-making. (Interestingly, Holiday was twice as difficult to work with as Flo Ballard and her frequent missed shows and impossible demands are as much a part of Broadway lore as her show-stopping "And I Am Telling You," which regularly knocks out every other showstopper whenever the Best of the Tony’s airs on PBS.)
A talent search is now under way for a singer who can meet the demands of this soul-belting role. Frenchie Davis (right), who was ejected from American Idol when her big-girls-need-love-too porn shots surfaced on the web, played Effie recently on the road. Both she and former Idol winner Fantasia Barrino are said to be competing with such stalwarts as Queen Latifah and perhaps even the original — and unlikely — Jennifer Holiday.
Think of that now: Diana Ross, this is your life… starring Frenchie Davis!
For more DIANA-MITE, check out our review of Mahogany, the Supersonic Diana Ross Experience. And of course Dick’s Diana Ross Website, one of the maddest sites on the net.
Just thought I’d let you guys know — Mink read the Dreamgirls piece, fainted and was then rushed from our apartment by ambulance to the nearest Tower Records where she purchased every copy of Diana Ross’s (import only) Touch Me In The Morning CD that she could get her hands on.
On route she kept mumbling something about having to hear Brown Baby/Save The Children “one more time.”
I’m very concerned!
T.
Of all the times I’ve been through London’s airports, I begged (ok… in my head) for a thoroughly rough man-handling from some of the twice-as-tall, ginger-haired blokes manning those wands of theirs.
horrible score? bite your gay tongue! have you listened to the Dreamgirls in Concert CD, with the full score and lotsa dialogue, performed by a spectacular cast: Lillias White, Audra McDonald, Heather Headley, Brian Stokes Mitchell, et al? i’m nowhere near the biggest musical theater queen in the world — mostly can’t stand the stuff — but on a jaunt to Montana last summer i spent a delirious day driving through cowboy/big-sky country with this 2-cd set on the car stereo, laughing and crying and singing along. i never felt so gay in all my life!
I’ve tried, Don. I really have. My gay tongue, which has been bitten black and blue before, thank you, still must wag it furious wag!
This is one dog of a score. The signature song “Dreamgirls” is flat and monotonous. It captures none of the sparkle of the real Supremes. Then there’s the dish-water dull lyrics in the “plot” songs. Only Jennifer Holliday (I have the B’way CD) staggers out of this one alive. She was worth every fit she threw and even managed to make a zircon like “One Night Only” sound like a hit.
Ultimately, I have been spoiled by “Sparkle,” a movie also based on the Supremes, songs by Curtis Mayfield. When it came time to release a soundtrack album, they canned the cast and gave all the songs to Aretha. It’s one of her best albums. Compare its signature song, “Sparkle” to the lame “Dreamgirls” — and we’ll see who has the most bitten gay tongue in this crazy gay universe.
Bring it on, Be-atch! BRING. IT. ON!
love love this enRICHing posting. we’ll see how it all turns up
a dream date to see Dreamgirls in NYC (b4 moving there a yr later) I was in awe of the power behind Jennifer Hollidays voice…only Frenchie Davis even comes close to the original, although I gve cudos to Fantasia for a true soulful original sound…stay true to the original cast & gve Frenchie the break she truly deserves, after such a yuk limp dick response to her infidelity by American Idol take…
If we’re bringing in the big guns (so to speak) of American Idol for this venture, has anybody thought of Jennifer Hudson? I imagine her name has been bandied about. I’m not sure if any of them can really carry a movie on their backs, but I’d like all screen tests on the DVD extras.
I am a bisexual gurl.. and i just wanted to say watching gay men is hott! keep it coming nightcharm… haha boys… that CD isnt THAT wonderful… but they’re better when J-Lo
Well, I’m a bi-guy — and I was obsessed with MS ROSS when I was in highschool…To this day I don’t know how my wild affection for her didn’t turn me queer…but there you have it. I think you’re exagerating her precieved reaction to DREAMGIRLS (THE MOVIE). Any publicity is good publicity — and that film will be 100 times better than an airport or DUI bust.
SIGN ME: “LOVE CHILD”
PS: THIS SITE ROCKZ…GLAD I FOUND IT!!!!!!
The signature song “Dreamgirls” is flat and monotonous. It captures none of the sparkle of the real Supremes….
well, OK, John, whatever. but i have to say: “Baby love/baby love/oooh oooh-oooh/Baby love” — is that the “sparkle” you speak of? or are you thinking of “Love is like an itchin in my heart/tearin me apart/like an itchin in my heart/and baby, I can’t scratch it”? really, each of the tunes in Dreamgirls is both parody and hommage to the deliriously inspired/insipid teen-angst poetry of Holland-Dozier-Holland.
really, check out the Dreamgirls in Concert CD. even if you don’t have a road trip across Montana scheduled. it’ll crack you up.
btw, i agree with u about the chintzy Bway original cast album AND about Sparkle — Givin’ Him Somethin’ He Can Feel is my motto.
Oh boys, this thread’s making me wild…love it!
Don just listed my favorite Supremes song (well, next to Love Child) with “Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart.” Can you imagine the reaction that must have gone down when H-D-H first presented the title of the song to Gordy and the girls!?
And I think Don’s point is right-on, too, about the entire Dreamgirls shabang being a big send-up. Though, like John, I just don’t get the “grab” from the Dreamgirls cast album, so maybe there’s a different sort of magic to discover in the LIVE CD that Don mentions, I’ll have to check it out now.
On a final note: there’s an import-only, 5-disc Supremes boxed-set that every R&B/soul lovin’ queer in their right mind MUST (absolutely MUST) own. It spans the whole “happening,” from the Primettes right down to the last thump-thump of the post-Diana Ross Supremes disco album in the 70s. The book and photos that accompany the set are worth the price alone. What strikes me, every time I play the discs, is how many incredible (and indelible) songs the Supremes generated — you forget, really — until you start playing them all — back to back. And that’s not even counting the fabulous songs that followed after Ross left the group, with Floy Joy (one of Smokey’s best tunes EVER), Up The Ladder to the Roof, Nathan Jones, Everybody’s Got The Right to Love — and my absolute, crazy-making favorite: STONED LOVE (presented in all it’s five-minute, unedited entirety on the boxed-set disc.)
Amazon’s reviewer says it best: “The music of the Supremes is both complex and catchy–a mixture virtually unheard of in the banal teen pop of our times… and this collection of music is stronger and sweeter than anything on the radio today.” You know it!
Natch, Dick gives all the details and over-the-top photos here.
David K.
Hi, Don. The sparkle I speak of came from the glossy way the Supremes sang. The lyrics were always bubble-gum emotions for young teenagers and never got in the way of the grown-up look and sound of the gowned and Sassooned Supremes. I wanted the song “Dreamgirls” to be more evocative of the girls. I expected it to be — oh, I don’t know — glamorous and exciting, the way B’way showstoppers are, like Ann-Margaret singing “Gotta Lot of Living to Do” in Bye Bye Birdie.
That said: My best friend Myles, who used to be a B’way dancer and goes to see every musical on B’way — I think he may be the only person in America to have seen all the various Velmas and Roxies in Chicago — he thinks I’m totally wrong on Dreamgirls. He made me listen to “Move,” the opening number on the album. And yeah, Jennifer Holliday delivers big time, as ever.
So you and Myles may be right. God, knows, I did end up buying the Grease movie album, after thinking the songs in the stage version were silly throw-aways. Then again, Grease had tons of new songs written just for the movie as well as the magic that was Olivia Newton John and then-sexbomb John Travolta. (God bless you Alan Carr, in whatever rich hell you are the madcap mayor-ess of!)
Thanks Don, and all the commentators for making this Dreamgirls entry one of the liveliest on our web site.
No matter what sign you are, you’re gonna be mine you are! — J.
I know this may be a long shot for some, but for me a sure win. The part of Effie should go to Jennifer Hudson (one of the singers voted off of American Idol). Not only can she sing, I mean really sing, she also has the training to back up her talents as far as acting goes. If you don’t believe me, you need to hear her rendition of “You’re Gonna Love Me”. She gives Jennifer Holliday a run for her money without even really trying. We all know that Jennifer Holliday has a voice to be reckoned with. Visit her website @ http://www.jenniferhudson.com
-TDM
I’m sorry, I gave the wrong website address - here’s the correct one.
http://jenniferhudsonfans.com/
Sorry Jennifer
-T
John and David K, i’m luvvin’ it that this particular topic has garnered more response than any other on the site! and comments by both of you have stirred up more thoughts on my own deep spiritual communion with the music of the Supremes. John, you’re right, it’s not about the lyrics at all, there is something spectacularly sophisticated about their stuff — i chalk it up to Motown’s house production team, Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier. my initiation to the wonders of sex is no more memorable to me than my first memories of the Supremes: a baby fag living on an Air Force base in Japan, listening to my transistor radio late on Saturday night in 1964 (the one hour of the week when you could get American pop on the radio, via “The Hit Parade”) and hearing those haunting handclaps and the voice out of the darkness moaning, “Baby, baby…baby don’t leave me…ooh, please don’t leave me all by myself.” Where did our love go? Has any more profound question ever been uttered in the universe? Two other production details that never fail to drive me insane: the organ swell that leads into “STOP! in the name of love,” and the loudening drumbeat and opening guitar chords of “Come See About Me.” whew! just those few moments of pop music are intoxicating enough for me.
i also remember that psychedelic summer, after the Beatles’ “Sgt Pepper” came out, and the Stones did their own version, “Their Satanic Majesties Request,” and the Supremes’ little homage to psychedelia was “Reflections.” 1967, summer of love.
i’m also remembering that John Sebastian has said that he wrote the song “Do You Believe in Magic?” imagining that the Supremes might one day record. wish they had.
David, you make me curious to track down that Supremes box and see what treasures it contains.
Can Jennifer Hudson act?
have you guys heard Jennifer Hudson sing And I Am Telling You? OMG! Better than Jennifer Holliday! Fantasia??? Frenchie????? Please!!!!!!!! They wish!!!!!! please go to her website and listen to it in her media section!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
just super super super super super
Jennifer Hudson is as close as you can get good gospel squall these days. Wouldn’t suprise me if Fantasia got the part, though. Jaimee Foxx has been promoting her, and she hasn’t even been in negotiations for the role yet.
I hope people are ready for Jennifer Hudson for Effie
Im so damn happy Jennifer Hudson got the part! Congrats Jenny! XOXOXO ~Miles