DREAMGIRLS
Year: 2006
USA & UK: Paramount Pictures
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, Danny Glover, Anika Noni Rose, Keith Robinson, Sharon Leal, Hinton Battle, Jordan Belfi, Yvette Cason, Alexander Folk, Ralph Louis Harris, Christopher Jackson, JoNell Kennedy, John Krasinski, Dawnn Lewis, John Lithgow, Robert Cicchini, Rory O'Malley, Ken Page, Mariah I Wilson, Jordan Wright, Esther Scott, Jocko Sims, Bobby Slayton, Yvette Nicole Brown, Eddie Mekka, Anne Elizabeth Warren, Laura Bell Bundy, John Cenatiempo, Michael Villani, Angela Sorensen, Michael Cline, Daren A Herbert, Matthew Dickens, David Mehl, Jonas Neal, Bashir Gavriel, Jamar Welch, Robert Wheeler, Thomas Crawford, Robert Curtis Brown, Loretta Devine, Gilbert Glenn Brown, E J Callahan, Luna Rocio Cantale, Alejandro Furth, Jason Graham, Vince Grant, Johnny Erasme, Jesus Maldonado, Marty Ryan, Tony Sagastizado I, Rick Scarry, Damion Poitier, Toni Trucks, Jaleel White, Philip Wright, Debra Zane
Director: Bill Condon
Country: USA
USA & UK: 130 mins
USA Rated: PG-13 for language, some sexuality and drug content
UK Certificate: 12A contains one use of strong language and hard drug references
USA Release Date: 25 December 2006
USA Release Date: 15 December 2006 (Limited Release - New York and Los Angeles)
UK Release Date: 2 February 2007
UK Distributor
Synopsis
In 1960s Detroit, a good night onstage can get you noticed but it won't get your song aired on the radio. Here, a new kind of music is on the cusp of being born - a sound with roots buried deep in the soul of Detroit itself, where songs are about more than what's on the surface, and everyone is bound together by a shared dream.
Curtis Taylor, Jr. (Jamie Foxx) is a car salesman aching to make his mark in the music business - to form his own record label and get its sound heard on mainstream radio at a time when civil rights are still only a whisper in the streets. He just needs the angle, the right talent, the right product to sell.
Late for their stint in a local talent show, The Dreamettes - Deena Jones (Beyonce Knowles), Lorrell Robinson (Anika Noni Rose), and lead singer Effie White (Jennifer Hudson) - show up in their cheap wigs and homemade dresses, rehearsing songs and steps by Effie's brother, C.C. (Keith Robinson), with hopes that talent and sheer desire will break them out of the only life that seems available to them. They're young and beautiful - just what Curtis is looking for. All they have to do is trust him.
James "Thunder" Early (Eddie Murphy) is a pioneer of the new Detroit sound, spellbinding audiences all along the "Chitlin' Circuit" with his electrifying blend of soul and rock 'n' roll. Curtis finesses The Dreamettes a gig singing backup for Early, and suddenly, for all of them, the gulf between what they want and what they can have draws closer for the first time.
Curtis launches the girls as a solo act, rechristening them The Dreams, knowing in his gut that success lies not with the soulful voice of Effie, but with the demure beauty and malleable style of Deena - despite their history…and Curtis' promises. Deena is ready to step into the spotlight, even as Effie fades away.
As a new musical age dawns, Curtis' driving ambition pushes this one-time family to the forefront of an industry in the throes of music revolution. But when the lights come up and the curtains part, they hardly recognize who they've become. Their dreams are finally there for the taking, but at a price that may be too heavy for their hearts to bear.
The groundbreaking Tony Award-winning Broadway phenomenon comes to life as an all-new motion picture adaptation written and directed by Academy Award winner Bill Condon. Condon, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of CHICAGO and writer-director of KINSEY and GODS AND MONSTERS, for which he received the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, wrote the screenplay for DREAMGIRLS based on the stage musical's original book and lyrics by Tom Eyen, with music by Henry Krieger.