"We're Your Dreamgirls"

But will the new movie soundtrack really make me happy?

After sitting through much hype and waiting, I finally have the Dreamgirls Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD in my hot little eczemaed hands. Well, the "highlights" version anyway (of course I find out after I opened my newly bought CD that there was a deluxe collectiors edition 2-disc version out there).

Now let me give you a little history to my experience with Dreamgirls the musical. After hearing many jokes with the original Broadway cast recording of Dreamgirls as the punchlike of Will & Grace, I finally decide to purchase myself a copy. It was a little after I caught the unbelievable Jennifer Holliday singing the song that will always be forever linked to her, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" on My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies on DVD. Her rendition of this song always sends chills up my spine, even after repeated listenings. Especially at the end with that last triumphant "mmmeeeeeeeeeee" that she hangs onto forever.

Well, I only really loved that song, as the CD I bought, though a new release via Decca Records, was plagued with problems. The first and fourth song on the CD won't play, and thus, my computer won't play the whole disc at all. The booklet only has eight pages to it, and a weird synopsis that has commentary from the person writing the liner notes actually written into it, so it was a little hard to follow along what's happening in the plot. I got the gist that it's a slight rip-off of the sotry of what happened with the creation of The Supremes and Diana Ross, but all the other intracacies of the show were lost to me. That, and I recently found out that most of the musical is sung through (like an opera), and loosing all the other stuff really doesn't give you a whole picture of the complexities of the show. Needless to say, I copied "And I Am Telling You..." onto my Best of Broadway mix CD, and filed this back with my other theatre soundtrack CDs.

Cut to today, and listening to the (ahem, highlights) version, and I finally get a more complete picture of what is happening. I commend everyone working on the project, but it seems like (save Eddie Murphy and a few others), they don't seem to pour all their heart into the music as I thought they would. Focusing on the titular song, this time American Idol contestant Jennifer Hudson (same initials, how convienent...) doesn't sing this song with the same pathos as Jennifer Holliday. It's not soul bearing she does, but rather just a mere shadow of what it is supposed to be. Jennifer Holliday had me at the first note to follow her along on her painful journey.

I guess I'll have to wait for the movie (and get the 2 disc set to get the other 16 songs I'm missing) to make my final opinion, and hopefully everything will live up to it's hype, as I would love the genre of movie musicals to continue (because Phantom Of the Opera sure didn't install any faith in me).

I leave you with the original 1982 Tony Award telecast of "It's All Over/And I Am Telling You". Watch the whole thing and tell me that you are not rivited to Jennifer Holliday.