Dreamgirls

PLOT

In 1962 Detroit, Michigan, young car salesman Curtis Taylor Jr. meets a Black girl group known as "The Dreamettes", which consists of lead singer Effie White and backup singers Deena Jones and Lorrell Robinson, at an R&B amateur talent show at the Detroit Theatre. Curtis presents himself as The Dreamettes' new manager and arranges for the girls to become backup singers for Chitlin' Circuit R&B star Jimmy "Thunder" Early.

Curtis soon starts his own record label, Rainbow Records, out of his Detroit car dealership, and appoints Effie's brother, C.C., as his head songwriter. When their first single fails after a white pop group releases a cover version, Curtis, C.C., and their producer Wayne turn to payola to make "Jimmy Early & The Dreamettes" mainstream pop stars. Offstage, Effie becomes infatuated with Curtis while the married Jimmy begins an affair with Lorrell.

Jimmy's manager, Marty Madison, grows weary of Curtis' plans to make his client more pop-friendly and walks out. When Jimmy bombs in front of an all-white Miami Beach supper club audience, Curtis sends Jimmy out on the road alone, keeping The Dreamettes behind to headline in his place. Feeling that Effie's plus-sized figure and distinctive voice will not attract white audiences, Curtis appoints Deena - who is slimmer, more conventionally attractive, and has a more basic, generic, and marketable voice - to be the new lead singer and renames the group "The Dreams".

With the aid of new songs and a new image, Curtis and C.C. transform The Dreams into a top-selling mainstream pop group. By 1965, however, Effie begins acting out, particularly when Curtis' affections also turn towards Deena. Curtis eventually drops Effie from the group, hiring his secretary Michelle Morris to take her place beginning with their 1966 New Year's Eve debut in Las Vegas as "Deena Jones & the Dreams." Despite Effie's defiance and desperate appeal to Curtis, he, C.C., and The Dreams leave her behind and forge ahead to stardom.

By 1973, Effie has become an impoverished welfare mother living in Detroit with her daughter Magic. Struggling to restart her career in music, she hires Marty as her manager and begins performing at a local club. Meanwhile, with Deena Jones & the Dreams superstars and Rainbow having moved to Los Angeles and are now the biggest pop business in the country, Curtis attempts to produce a film about Cleopatra starring an unwilling Deena, who is now his wife.

The following year, Jimmy, who has descended into drug addiction due to Curtis' preoccupation with Deena, along with the rejection of the charity single he recorded, has a breakdown during Rainbow Records' tenth-anniversary television special. Curtis promptly drops him from the label and Lorrell ends their affair. Sometime later, C.C., who feels Curtis is undermining the artistic merit of his songs by making them into disco music, quits the label, only for everyone to then learn that Jimmy has unexpectedly died from a heroin overdose, much to Lorrell's dismay.

Disillusioned by Jimmy's death and Curtis' cold reaction to the news, C.C. travels to Detroit and reconciles with Effie, for whom C.C. writes and produces a comeback single. Just as the record begins gaining local radio play, Curtis uses payola to force radio stations to play The Dreams' disco cover of the song. The plan falls apart, however, when Deena, angry over how Curtis controls her career, finds evidence of his schemes and contacts Effie, who arrives in Los Angeles with C.C., Marty, and a lawyer.

Deena and Effie reconcile, with Effie revealing to Deena that Curtis is Magic's father, while Curtis agrees to give Effie's record national distribution in order to avoid being reported to the FBI. Having been inspired by Effie's victory and realizing Curtis' true character, Deena leaves him to make it on her own.

By 1975, The Dreams give a final farewell performance at the Detroit Theater and invite Effie onstage for the final song. As the concert ends, Curtis notices Magic in the front row and realizes she is his daughter.

CAST

Jennifer Hudson as Effie White;

Jamie Foxx as Curtis Taylor, Jr.;

Beyoncé as Deena Jones;

Anika Noni Rose as Lorrell Robinson;

Keith Robinson as Clarence Conrad (C.C.) White;

Eddie Murphy as James (Jimmy) "Thunder" Early;

Danny Glover as Marty Madison,

Sharon Leal as Michelle Morris;

Hinton Battle as Wayne,

Loretta Devine as Jazz Singer.

Dawnn Lewis as Melba Early,

John Lithgow as Jerry Harris,

John Krasinski as Sam Walsh,

Jaleel White as Talent Booker at the Detroit Theatre talent show

Cleo King as Janice

Robert Cicchini as Nicky Cassaro

Yvette Nicole Brown as Curtis' Secretary

Mariah I. Wilson as Magic,

Paul Kirby as Promo Film Narrator (voice)

SOUNDTRACK

Act I

"I'm Lookin' for Something" – The Step Sisters

"Goin Downtown" – Little Albert & the Tru-Tones

"Takin the Long Way Home" – Tiny Joe Dixon

"Move" – Dreamettes

"Fake Your Way To The Top" – James "Thunder" Early & The Dreamettes

"Cadillac Car" – James Thunder Early & The Dreamettes

"Cadillac Car (Reprise)" – Dave & The Sweethearts

"Steppin To The Bad Side" – Curtis Taylor Jr., Wayne, C.C. White, Jimmy Early & The Dreamettes and Chorus

"Love You I Do" – Effie White

"I Want You Baby" – Jimmy Early & The Dreamettes

"Family" – C.C. White, Effie White, Curtis Taylor Jr., Deena Jones, and Lorrell Robinson

"Dreamgirls" – The Dreams

"Heavy" – The Dreams

"It's All Over" – Effie White, Deena Jones, Curtis Taylor Jr., C.C. White, Lorrell Robinson, and Michelle Morris

"And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" – Effie White

"Love Love Me Baby" - Deena Jones & The Dreams

Act II

"I'm Somebody" – Deena Jones & the Dreams

"When I First Saw You" – Curtis Taylor Jr.

"Patience" – Jimmy Early, Lorrell Robinson, C.C. White, and Chorus

"I Am Changing" – Effie White

"Perfect World" – The Campbell Connection

"I Meant You No Harm/Jimmy's Rap" – Jimmy Early

"Lorrell Loves Jimmy" – Lorrell Robinson

"Family (Reprise)" – Deena Jones & the Dreams

"Jimmy Don't Crawl" – Jimmy Early (Director's Cut only)

"Step on Over" – Deena Jones & the Dreams

"I Miss You Old Friend" – Jazz Singer (Loretta Devine)

"Effie, Sing My Song" – C.C. White and Effie White (Director's Cut only)[15]

"One Night Only" – Effie White

"One Night Only (Disco)" – Deena Jones & the Dreams

"Listen" – Deena Jones

"Effie White's Gonna Win" - Effie White

"Hard to Say Goodbye" – Deena Jones & the Dreams

"Dreamgirls (Finale)" – The Dreams

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Adapted from the 1981 Broadway musical of the same name by composer Henry Krieger and lyricist/librettist Tom Eyen, Dreamgirls is a film à clef, a work of fiction taking strong inspiration from the history of the Motown record label and one of its acts, The Supremes.