"Dreamgirls" - Music & lyrics

Rating: 7/10 (1 November 2007)

I don't normally like musicals and as such, went into "Dreamgirls" thinking it was a fictional take on the real-life rise of soul singer Diana Ross and her former song-group The Supremes, except that it had singer Beyonce' Knowles, Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose in the parts, and show business talents like Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy were there to keep everybody in line. It's a fairly good take on the crossover of black artists into the white mainstream music scene the mid-20th century, when music was still segregated. I thought it was going to be a biopic (sort of), with no music and song performances (well occasionally, like stuff we see on stage, rather than just random musical numbers). I can honestly say that "Dreamgirls" is probably one of the first musicals I can actually sit through, which is good. I must say that the actresses (especially Knowles as Deena Jones and Hudson as Effie) project their voices flawlessly, and their performances work. I can lastly say that writer/director Bill Condon has done a good job of adapting Tom Eyen's original Broadway hit for the screen. But like I said earlier, I don't normally like musicals but this one was pretty good, with good music and music numbers, and a production that also captured the rise of black music and its crossing over into the white mainstream.
7/10