Dreamgirls is a Broadway musical and a film. A fictional story, based loosely on the experiences of a number of rhythm and blues and soul acts, including the Supremes and the Shirelles, Dreamgirls follows a Chicago girls trio on their road to stardom. An amateur African-American group, the Dreamettes, enters a talent show in Detroit in 1962, where they meet an aspiring manager who arranges for them to sing back-up for a regional star. The lead singer of the group, considered too full-figured to have widespread appeal, is displaced, and the plot follows the fortunes of the original three Dreamettes over the next 13 years. The story contains allusions to actual groups and events, and the musical and film—though they do have some notable differences—are quite similar.
Dreamgirls had its roots in a project that was developed for Nell Carter. It began with the name One Night Only and then a working title Project #9, which was temporarily shelved when Carter’s career took a different direction. Interest from a new quarter led to further development and workshopping under the name Big Dreams, and with further workshopping and multiple changes of personnel, the project was renamed Dream Girls. With funding from David Geffen and the Shubert family, among others, as well as rewrites, the musical Dreamgirls opened at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway in December of 1981 and ran until 1985. The opening night cast included Jennifer Holliday, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Loretta Devine as the trio members.
The film version of Dreamgirls also had a complicated path to its opening. David Geffen held the film rights and first attempted to work with lyricist and producer Howard Ashman to adapt the musical as a film for Whitney Houston. A production with director Joel Schumacher and starring Lauryn Hill and Kelly Price was both begun and stopped based on the success and failure of other films. Dreamworks’ version came about through the efforts of director and screenwriter Bill Condon. The film starred Beyoncé Knowles, Jennifer Hudson, and Anika Noni Rose as the members of the trio, Jamie Foxx as their manager, and also had Eddie Murphy and Danny Glover in the cast.
The musical Dreamgirls was nominated for 13 Tony Awards and won six. It also won five Drama Desk Awards and two Grammy Awards. The film Dreamgirls was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won two. It also won many other awards, including three Golden Globes and a Grammy.
