Dreamgirls
Savoy, London WC2
★★★★
Dreamgirls finally sashays into the West End from Broadway after a 35-year wait. British fans who know this girl-group-gone-bad story from the bloated Beyoncé movie may be relieved to hear that Casey Nicholaw’s stage production is a tighter, more efficient beast.
As the Motown era hits full swing, a young trio, the Dreamettes, naively yearn for fame. Lorrell (Ibinabo Jack, a standout) and Deena (the perky Liisi LaFontaine) may be cute, but it’s the plump and feisty Effie White (Amber Riley) who has the voice — in short, the soul. Under the aegis of the svengali Curtis Taylor Jr (Joe Aaron Reid, sometimes sinister-bland, sometimes just plain bland), the Dreamettes, now Dreamgirls, will indeed go far; but with the more palatable Deena placed up front at Effie’s expense, each has to pay the cost.
Tom Eyen and Henry Krieger’s 1981 musical has many pertinent themes, not least in charting how black artists had (still have?) to soften their edges to please a paler, more conservative audience. The show’s best bits come when the gloss is leavened with a bit of grit: Effie growling her fury, the irrepressible Jimmy “Thunder” Early (a brilliant Adam J Bernard) getting back to his James Brownish best.
Inevitably, though, this is all encased in the general uplift of a big, barnstorming, sparkly musical; the emotion is there, but it can sometimes feel a little bit tame, ersatz. There is a neatness to proceedings that doesn’t quite relay the cruelty and messiness of the themes. Such is the genre, though, and it seems churlish to moan when Riley hits top gear: the Glee star effortlessly elevates the material whenever it comes her way, not just singing but acting, owning every note. The show is not always a classic, but her performance certainly is.