Dreamgirls (London)
Opening Night: November 19, 2016
Theater: Savoy Theatre, Savoy Court, The Strand, London WC2R 0ET, UK
This much-anticipated new production is directed and choreographed by the hugely successful, Tony and Olivier award-winning Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon, Aladdin, Something Rotten!) and Amber Riley* (Glee) plays ‘Effie White’. Featuring the classic songs ‘And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going’, ‘I Am Changing’, ‘One Night Only’ and ‘Listen’, DREAMGIRLS follows the journey of a young female singing group from Chicago and will transport you to a revolutionary time in American music history. The trio ‘The Dreams’, must learn the tough lesson that show business and stardom isn’t always as glamorous as it seems.
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April 30, 2017
LONDON — When Effie White says that she’s nobody’s backup singer, it’s obvious she’s just speaking the simple truth. Never mind that when she makes this pronouncement, with a certainty that is as natural to her as breathing, it’s still early in Casey Nicholaw’s supercharged revival of “Dreamgirls,” a popular hit at the Savoy Theater here.
From the moment she arrives fresh off the bus from Chicago in 1960s Harlem, this young vocalist is forever, undeniably front and center. And that has nothing to do with where she’s standing on the stage.
Effie is portrayed by Amber Riley, in a performance that has Londoners responding with the frenzied adulation their Broadway equivalents are according Bette Midler (in “Hello, Dolly!”) and Glenn Close (in “Sunset Boulevard”). At 31, and several decades younger than those much-mythologized actresses, Ms. Riley is demonstrating that with the right chops, even a baby diva can help a war horse gallop like a colt.
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