Dreamgirls (2 Disc Showstopper Edition)

Posted by Maggie Van Ostrand (maggie@filmschoolrejects.com) on May 19, 2007

The movie “Dreamgirls”, covering the Motown music period of 1962-1975, could probably be classified as a chick flick, but the extras on the DVD should then be considered a dick flick for any film buff or film student. There’s enough T&A, plenty of quivering booty, and behind-the-scenes repartee with Eddie Murphy and Jamie Foxx to satisfy the most discerning of comedy-minded fans.

With financial backing supplied by a small group including media mogul and Dreamworks partner Dave Geffen, himself rising to fame and fortune during this same period, the DVD extras show that Geffen was present during filming much of the time. Dreamgirls is the classic backstage show business story, and the feature-length extras to this 2-disc DVD is yet another layer to being backstage at a backstage story. Wheels within wheels.

Special features include extensive interviews with all members of the exhuberant cast including Danny Glover (Marty Madison) Keith Robinson (C.C. White), Beyonce Knowles (Deena Jones) , Jennifer Hudson (Effie White), Anika Noni Ross (Lorrell Robinson), Eddie Murphy (James Thunder Early), Jamie Foxx (Curtis Taylor Jr.), Sharon Leal (Michelle Morris) and Loretta Divine (”jazz singer”).

Most notable are interviews with the film’s execs, notably screenwriter-director Bill Condon. Of Beyonce Knowles’ memorable performance, Condon notes “She channeled Diana Ross with a dollop of Marilyn Monroe.”

Long before the 11-month pre-production began, Beyonce contacted Condon herself because “I knew that this was the part I had been preparing for. It was a great time in music history. I know it’s the role of my life.” In a real-life imitation of a Hollywood tradition, she studied tapes of the period, hired her own make-up person, did the choreography and “haunted vintage dress shops” — and that was just for the screen test. We’re rewarded with seeing the actual screen test for ourselves, and Beyonce does not disappoint.

Condon advises that as he wrote the screenplay, he had only one actor in mind to play the role of Curtis Taylor Jr., and his wish became a reality when Jamie Foxx agreed to play the part of a car dealer who puts his money where his mouth is to manage the fledgling group, the Dreamettes, and steamrolls over a lot of people including Effie to push the group to the top where they successfully cross over from black niche to white pop, de-blanding it in the process.

Of Jamie Foxx, Music Supervisors Randy Spendlove and Matt Sullivan said, “Jamie is very much ‘Let’s try this and let’s try that.’ Everything he does he wants to be great.”
Perfection was very much the touchstone of this film, and Condon said “All the Dreamgirls are Virgos and they all want everything to be perfect.” It was.

Condon lucked out again with his choice to play James Thunder Early. “It was a short list of only one: Eddie Murphy.” Murphy turns in a blistering performance in the role of a Little Richard-James Brown-Otis Redding dynamite showman, who tries to bridge the gap as the Dreamettes did, attempting to change his style with the times. Murphy has tremendous star presence, and manages to sing brilliantly in several styles, all of which make it impossible to keep your feet from moving along with his. It’s amazing, or perhaps political, that more members of the Academy voted for the sentimental favorite, aging Alan Arkin (”Little Miss Sunshine”) than voted for Eddie Murphy. It’s about as hard to believe as the year Grace Kelly won (”The Country Girl”) in a so-so performance over Judy Garland (”A Star is Born”) who was luminous and brilliant.

As to Murphy’s singing, he says, “I had a band before I did comedy. It was shitty, but it was a band. I put out a couple of shitty records in the old days.” Maybe that was true back then, but it certainly isn’t true in Dreamgirls. Any funny stories from Eddie about the making of Dreamgirls? “I busted my mouth with the mic. That’s the only funny story here,” he says.

Extras include Anika Noni Ross’s audition and scenes of the mass auditions held nationwide for the key role of Effie. “90 per cent of the casting is Effie,” says Condon, “Jennifer Holliday’s shoes were hard to fill and we had to find someone who did not imitate her, someone with a voice like no one else’s.”

When American Idol’s Simon Cowell told Jennifer Hudson as he booted her off the TV show, “Plan on doing something else in your life because you’ll never get another shot,” Hudson almost believed it. Almost. Then she made the short list of singers for the starring part of Effie. We get to see her first audition, her second audition, and the screen test. When they phoned her to say she got the part, “I was outside on my knees shoutin’ and crazy!!” says a beaming, grateful Hudson.

Now that Effie was cast, the producers were able to cast the roll of C.C., Effie’s brother.
Keith Robinson had tried out along with many, many others, for the part, and waited over three months after multiple auditions. Keith was “so nervous, I wouldn’t answer the phone.” Jamie Foxx calls Keith “the new Dark Gable,” and he could be right.

Unlike old movie musicals where songs were sung because they were just good songs, in Dreamgirls, each song propels us forward in the story, and a couple were added to the original repertoire from the Broadway show, by Henry Krieger and Tom Eyen.

An interesting bit in the Extras was Condon’s explanation of the 11 months prep, in which he used set models in addition to drawings. A tiny, moving camera was installed within the model so they could see what the actual set would look like as filmed, and they could make adjustments. Condon said John Boorman taught him that technique.

Standout performances in the movie, in addition to the stars, were Michael-Leon Wooley as Tiny Joe Dixon, Loretta Divine from the original Broadway cast of Dreamgirls, as “jazz singer,” and Hinton Battle, also from the original cast (as James Thunder Early) in the role of Wayne.

Extras commence with the First Night opening of the theatrical Dreamgirls, and ends with Opening Night of the movie, both held in the legendary Ziegfeid Theatre on Broadway.

Dreamgirls is an amazing film. If you can’t buy it, rent it. The DVD extras are like getting two movies for the price of one.

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