And I am telling you I'm seeing it again and again!

Wow. What a movie! I took the family to see DREAMGIRLS yesterday (we tried on Boxing Day, but it was sold out). What a blast. I had purchased the original Broadway cast recording of DREAMGIRLS (produced by David Foster, it won a 1982 Grammy!) about a month ago, so I've been groovin' to the tunes for a while.

For some reason DREAMGIRLS had never really been on my radar. I had heard of it obviously, but was never really that familiar with it. Since the movie has been out I've been reading about the musical (originally directed and choreographed for the stage by none other than Michael Bennett) which opened exactly 25 years ago in 1981 (hey, what did I know, I was still in high school...). Bill Condon, who wrote the screenplay for the movie version of CHICAGO, was in the audience on opening night.

In an article in the January 2007 issue of Vanity Fair magazine, Bill Condon says Michael Bennett was:

...like George Lucas coming along. It was the return to an embrace of showbiz, in a more loving and innocent and naive way, but with incredibly brilliant savvy and a modern sensibility. That moment in Star Wars when they go into hyperspace? That's what seeing Bennett shows was like. DREAMGIRLS was one of the major stagings of that era. It was completely abstract. It was just a bunch of lighting towers that moved around to create different settings. Like a movie. It was always described as cinematic staging.

Finally, someone (other than my husband and myself) who likes Star Wars and musicals!

DREAMGIRLS, the movie, stars Beyonce Knowles, Eddie Murphy, Jamie Foxx, Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose (she won Best Featured actress in a musical for CAROLINE, OR CHANGE), Danny Glover, and newcomer and American Idol finalist Jennifer Hudson. I have to say Eddie Murphy does an amazing job and he was a unanimous favorite amongst the Conn family. Everyone is fabulous (I wish I could have hear Anika Noni Rose sing more!) and I thought they made a great ensemble.

Although most of the songs are performed as performances (on stage or in a recording studio) there are moments of people just singing their feelings/actions to one another like they do in a stage musical, with no apparent attempt to hide that they are, in fact, doing just that. I really liked that a lot. But then again, I've never had a problem with people bursting into song, since I tend to do that myself...

And of course I absolutely loved the sets and costumes as they moved from the sixties into the seventies. During the scene where they are pitching the song "Patience" to Curtis, both my husband and I pointed to the screen and said (quietly of course), "ooh, nice lamp". Curtis might have been a meanie, but he had great taste.

I have a confession to make -- I preferred the disco version of "One Night Only"! I can't help it, I like disco!

There, I said it.

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