Description

We're your Broadway Babies, and listeners, we'll make you happy this week! It's a new season of our podcast, and to kick it off, we're going to talk about another concert of another Michael Bennett masterwork, the 2001 "Dreamgirls in Concert" benefiting the Actors Fund of America, starring Lillias White, Audra McDonald and Heather Headley. Get ready for conversations surrounding race issues in America that bleed over into the theatre as we kick off this season on race issues in America for Black History Month. We will be talking about the energetic and fun music that brings Motown to life, the vocal expectations of roles for black women in musical theatre, and accurate portrayals of minorities in musical theatre. So fasten your seat belts in your Cadillac car, it's about to get glamorous!

Podcast cover art: David Taylor

Twitter: @bwaybabies Facebook: Facebook.com/broadwaybabiespodcast

Cast recording: iTunes | Spotify | Amazon

Music

• "Dreamgirls" (performed by Audra McDonald, Lillias White and Heather Headley)
• "Steppin' to the Bad Side" (by Norm Lewis, Darius de Haas, Billy Porter, James Stovall and Bobby Daye)
• "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" (by Lillias White)
• "One Night Only/One Night Only (disco reprise)" (by Lillias White, and by Audra McDonald, Heather Headley and Tamara Tunie)
• "Family" (by Darius de Haas, Billy Porter, Norm Lewis, Audra McDonald and Heather Headley)
• "Hard to Say Good-bye" (by Audra McDonald, Heather Headley and Tamara Tunie)
• "Dreamgirls (reprise)" (by Lillias White, Audra McDonald, Heather Headley and Tamara Tunie)

Show Notes

• As promised: the Dreamgirls Tonys performance with Jennifer Holliday's legendary showstopper, along with her and everyone else winning their awards
• Here's the NYT article about the concert with interviews with basically everyone in the cast and creative team.
• You HAVE to see this K-Pop music video inspired by Dreamgirls. The song is "Nobody" by Wonder Girls. The beginning is hilarious and also the whole video is fabulous and amazing.
• The music director of the 2001 production, Seth Rudetsky, who is still stanning out to Lillias riffing. 
  • The performance he is raving about, from another concert she stole
• Original Deena Sheryl Lee Ralph discussing Dreamgirls and her long, successful career on Broadway.
• If you would like to learn more about black girl groups in the '60s, Mary Wilson, an original Supreme, wrote an autobiography called "Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme."