Dreamgirls is a musical based on the show business aspirations and successes of R&B acts such as The Supremes, The Shirelles and Jackie Wilson. The musical follows the story of a young female singing trio from Chicago "The Dreams", who become music superstars.
Staged with a mostly African-American cast, the show opened on Broadway in 1981 starring Jennifer Holliday, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Loretta Devine and winning 6 Tony Awards. It was adapted into a motion picture in 2006, starring Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé, Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson and opened in the West End in 2016 with Amber Riley leading the cast.
Every year, The Alexandra steers away from pantomime in favour of an alternative offer to the city - generally a big West End transfer. There's been a huge amount of anticipation for Dreamgirls to arrive in Brum, let alone as a Christmas present to the West Midlands - and it certainly didn't disappoint.
First things first; this show is visually stunning. Making use of some gorgeous lighting, the set is fairly basic with a couple of added extras flown in to differentiate 'venues', a cleaver use of lighting adds just enough layering to the stage to allow the audience to differentiate between scenes and allows for enough simplicity that the talent on stage is able to shine. And shine it definitely does.
It sounds incredibly cliche to say, but there really isn't a bad link in the Dreamgirls chain. From leads to ensemble to swings, every performer works beautifully as part of an incredibly tight, cohesive unit.
I remember speaking to Nicole Raquel Dennis at the original show launch and she said at the time that she'd never worked with a group of people who gelled so well, and that was plain to see this evening.
Brandon Lee Sears excels as Jimmy Early; a caricature of artists like Jackie WIlson, Sears' energy and enthusiasm seemingly knows no bounds! Jumping around the stage and using his beautiful falsetto to perfection, he captivated the audience from the get-go. Alongside Natalie Kassanga as Deena and Paige Peddie as Lorrell, the sheer depth of performance on stage this evening was formidable. All three looked as though they'd just stepped out of Motown and onto the stage.
However, for me, the out and out star of the show this evening was Nicole Raquel Dennis who was, quite simply, exceptional.
Dennis will be best known to a portion of the audience as the performer who held her own in a duet with the big-screen Effie, JHud, on The Voice UK. To others, she's had roles in some of the best musicals of the last few years. But to every person in The Alexandra this evening, whether she made them laugh, cry or punch the sky with a sense of solidarity, Dennis is nothing short of a star.
You can't help but be moved by her performance and I cannot even begin to describe how BEAUTIFUL the end of ac 1 was. To take on a song like And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going is a mammoth task in itself, but to sing and communicate the emotion of the lyric through your performance in the way that Dennis did is exceptional.
Never before have I witnessed such an instant, powerful standing ovation that was more thoroughly deserved. Dennis's performance brought the audience to tears and simultaneously gave them hope and inspiration from a powerful woman and her team of powerful women - a skill which is commendable.
Dreamgirls has everything. It has the music, the laughter, the sass and the solidarity that great shows are made of. The production is in Birmingham for just shy of a month and you could do a lot worse than jumping in the car and making a day of it - wherever you're travelling from.
If ratings of more than five stars were a thing, I'd be handing them out in multiples of 10.
Dreamgirls runs at The Alexandra Theatre until 31st December 2022. For tickets, or more information, head online to atgtickets.com/birmingham.
