Dreamgirls is a show that features a trio of black women soaring through the music charts of the 1960s with the help of an opportunistic car salesman of a promoter. The tight trio is slowly driven apart when Effie White, the lead singer, is relegated to a backup singer in favour of the more beautiful Deena Jones. Effie ends up being replaced after missing too many performances and tries to explain the absences were due to her being pregnant. Act II follows the stardom of the Dreams, sans Effie, and the married life of the controlling Curtis to Deena. Curtis, being the parasitic villain, continues to plague Effie by sabotaging her solo release of a song by releasing a Dream cover of it. The show ends with the reconciliation of the Dreams to sing their signature song one last time before they all go their separate ways.

Orpheus has a reputation for putting on some great shows, even if their show choices are “safe” and cautious. Dreamgirls had a movie musical adaptation that was met with some middling reviews and this production of Dreamgirls falls into that category. Overall, this production seemed to suffer from a lack of cohesion in every department and felt stitched together.

General Direction

Orpheus shows generally tend to attract many people to their auditions and that allows them to cast some of the most talented people in main roles. This time round, the cast is studded with aces in their places, but there is a huge lack of connection and chemistry. Specifically, one person detracted so much from the show with their constant break of focus in scenes to make sure they’re in time with the orchestra to some questionable choices in movement.

This show suffered from a lack of connection between any of the characters. Even the romance was sterile and lacked any sign of emotion. I remember being shocked into remembering that some characters were romantically intertwined because of the dialogue I heard, rather than seeing it being portrayed.

Choreography

Dreamgirls isn’t a dance show in any regard, but the numbers that did have dance/movement in them were all these similar flowy moves and gave it this lackluster energy. It felt noticeable in high energy songs like the disco version of “One Night Only”. I’m all for sensual slow movements, but in an absolute banger of a number like that, the energy that the orchestra gave wasn’t matched in the movement.

It also felt a lot of the times people weren’t dancing, it felt more like they were doing Move A then going to Move B with no sequencing or emotion in the movement. There were way too many spacing issues to count and it feels like the actors could’ve benefited from some more dance rehearsals focusing on spacing. What really hurt is the choreography for the Dreams trio, none of them were in sync with each other and the unison moves fell apart. Niamh is a relatively newer choreographer with credits for Newsies, Falsettos, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, this seems like an odd departure from what I’m used to seeing from them. Hopefully, this is just a glitch in the matrix and I look forward to seeing their work in any upcoming show.

Music Direction

Patrice Xavier as Effie absolutely ate. No crumbs remaining. Their solo in “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” and “One Night Only” stole the show. Emmanuel Simon as Jimmy Early also had some great moments in their vocals; however, that’s really all that can be said that was good for music direction. I also hate to bring up the same person who had troubles in acting choices, but their vocal choices were no better: lacking rhythm, clarity, and accuracy. The ensemble just sounded bored and tired. A key moment I remember being a point where it should sound like the whisperings of “Roxie” from Chicago, the whisperings sounded more akin to murmurs in the dark.

The Dreams are supposed to be a trio of close knit women in sync in movement and in music, but there was no sense of that trio and it felt more like three soloists forced to be in a group. They could’ve benefited from some more practice in blending their tones to create a more homogenous sound. The Stepp Sisters (Stephanie Jones, Marlayah McLeod, Tifanni Kenny, and Whitney Rigg) were much more cohesive and I wish I saw three of them try their hand at being the Dreams.

Design

I had the opportunity to meet the new soundboard operator on the night I went and they were extremely kind in asking what I thought of the mixing. It’s understandable that you’d want direct feedback from audiences, it is very hard to be honest in person to someone you just met. For the whole first act, it sounded like I was listening to the show through a low end record player. Not being able to hear parts of dialogue and the mix creating this odd effect, made it hard to focus on the show itself. Granted, the sound did improve throughout the night and solidify during some crucial moments, like Effie’s solo songs. Hopefully, the new soundboard operator learned a lot from this experience and I hope to see them continue to expand their skills.

The lighting for the show didn’t have any outstanding moments, but it also didn’t have any terrible moments either. There were times where the lighting was too harsh and washed many people away.

Sets are the most crucial parts in tying a show together and Orpheus knocks it out of the park for this show. This is the first time I’ve seen them utilize a turntable and although the sets were very limited, they played around with the turntable: creating clear division in spaces with smooth transitions in between. My only gripes are the two poles on either side sometimes blocks the usage of the upstage projections and I wish they gave some more character to the other parts of the turntable: lining the stairs with lights or some filigree to make it more standout as it looks like a cutout from a black box theater.

Costumes, Makeup, and Hair

The costumes department usually hits it out of the park when dressing the show up. I went expecting some absolutely beautiful dresses that really highlighted 60s Motown with some sparkly shines; however, I was disappointed. The dresses for the Dreams were tacky and cheap looking. From afar, they also look poorly fitted to the characters themselves. The only piece that I did like was a pink jacket worn by Jimmy, but that was an upcycle from when Orpheus did The Who’s Tommy the Musical. It seems the costumes department has been lacking for the past couple of shows and hopefully they pick it up come The Wizard of Oz.

Makeup and Hair are usually lumped together and honestly, I don’t have much comments on this piece. The wigs for some characters were great, but some looked not so great. Makeup did its job and made everyone standout, even under the harsh lighting.

Standouts

There were some exceptionally strong moments in the show, but it was mostly just Effie and Jimmy who had such outstanding moments. The Stepp Sister quartet were also strong in their features and that quartet should feel extremely proud! Axandre Lemours as C.C. White also had a very strong performance.

Overall, the show itself was okay. Could it have been better? Probably. There were many problems with the show itself and it is for sure one of the weakest shows put out recently by Orpheus. I am unsure how this cavalcade of errors came to be, but maybe I’m just a harsh critic.