| I was living in Boston when the DreamGirls was coming in, pre Broadway. Even with Michael Bennett with A Chorus Line behind him the subject matter didn't pull me in, I'm not a rock fan. The show opened to raves and it was on everybody's lips. Even my parents who had stopped going to the theater saw it and raved, told me I had to see it. I was able to score a perfect mid orchestra seat for the final Saturday night performance from a ticket agency at a reasonable price. It was a total work of art, everything about the production was as great as Broadway can get. Jennifer Holiday literally blew the roof off The Shubert Theater, in retrospect the greatest performance I have ever seen. The only thing that kept that from being obvious to me is that everyone around her was equally on the same level, just not with that powerhouse first act closer, one of the greatest songs ever for a Broadway musical. I have and admire the concert CD, the cast is uniformly terrific and Lilias White is able to stand up to memories of Jennifer Holiday, but not better that performance, at least in my mind. I have a feeling that the part of Effie Melody White is so fantastic that many people will be great between now and forever and there is no point arguing who is greater than who, just whether you liked the particular performance or not, just like Rose in Gypsy. |
