Musicals: November 2006 Archives

Any one of us would hope to live to be 89, especially if until the end we could remain witty and engaged and beloved. Still, I was so saddened to learn of the death of Betty Comden in New York a few days ago. Along with professional partner Adolph Green, Comden is responsible for some of the greatest musicals including "Singin' in the Rain," "Wonderful Town," "Auntie Mame," and the great "On the Town" which features the classic song "New York, New York...(It's a Helluva Town)."
In early 2001, Comden and Green were the recipients of the Writers Guild of America's Laurel Award. I was a film writer at The Hollywood Reporter at the time and was assigned to write a story about the pair. I phoned them separately in New York. We had such nice conversations and I'll never forget it. Green died in 2002 but lived long enough for the two to make it to the DVD premiere of "Singin' in the Rain" in Beverly Hills. Sorry I missed that event!
The pair were Tony winners for "On the Twentieth Century," "Hallelujah Baby!" and "The Will Rogers Follies," among others. Their other credits include "Peter Pan," "Bells Are Ringing," and "Applause," the latter a musical version of "All About Eve" that ran for several years and won Lauren Bacall the first of two Tonys. I interviewed Bacall a few years ago and she told me that the show was absolutely "a career high for me" and allowed her to finally emerge from the professional shadow of her late husband Humphrey Bogart. They created the show with Bacall in mind as they did "Bells Are Ringing" decades earlier for Judy Holliday who also won a Tony.
Among the songs written by the Comden and Green team were "Just in Time," "The Party's Over" and "Make Someone Happy." They were twice nominated for an Academy Award for writing "Band Wagon" and "It's Always Fair Weather."
In closing, I gotta say, the passing of someone like Betty Comden really makes you think about the artistic contributions of some of the people who have walked this earth and how much joy their work gave to so many of us. The songs we hum, the movies we remember, the stage productions we will never forget. It's far more interesting and deserving of attention than what we heap on so many of these no-talent party girls with hair extensions on the cover of every magazine. Betty Comden will be remembered long after we forget about every single one of them.

It was the perfect pre-Thanksgiving treat: a special screening of the upcoming musical "Dreamgirls" in Hollywood in a theater filled with people so appreciative of the talent on screen that they applauded at least a dozen times throughout the movie.
This is the best musical Hollywood has produced in forever. I feel like a chump for thinking "Chicago" was the living end. This makes that one, good as it was, look like a high school production. This movie has real singers, real heart, and a real story. And it is just beautifully done with an absolute first-rate cast.
"Dreamgirls" follows the rise of a trio of women - Effie (Jennifer Hudson), Deena (Beyonce Knowles) and Lorrell (Anika Noni Rose) - who are part of an all-girl group, The Dreamettes. Discovered by an ambitious manager named Curtis Taylor, Jr (Jamie Foxx), The Dreamettes are given the chance to enter the big league as the back-up singers for headliner James 'Thunder' Early (Eddie Murphy)
I stayed through the end credits so I could hear all the songs on the soundtrack and had to laugh when it said on screen that any similarity to real-life events was "coincidental." OK, just try and pretend that you aren't watching the story of The Supremes (pictured, left), that Beyonce Knowles isn't playing Diana Ross (at times she seemed to be channeling Miss Ross onstage), that Jamie Foxx isn't Berry Gordy, that Rose isn't Mary Wilson, and that Hudson (get your Oscar speech ready girl) isn't a triumphant version of the tragic Florence Ballard. While it's no surprise that Foxx is terrific in "Dreamgirls," I was not prepared for the absolute revelation that Murphy is in the film. His acting is not only first-rate and mature, he sings wonderfully as does Foxx, whose best song is "When I First Saw You" and who won an American Music Award on Tuesday.
Hudson's version of "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" was not only spectacularly sung, but beautifully acted as well. It felt like one of those great old Hollywood musicals. It felt like a classic. Who can ever forget Jennifer Holliday's singular version of this song? Hudson almost makes it happen and she most certainly makes the song her own. Hudson also shines on "Love You I Do" and "I Am Changing" and the whole cast is wonderful on "Family." And a wonderful touch was including Loretta Devine in the movie (she starred on Broadway with Holliday back in 1981) and she even gets to do part of a song to remind us of how multi-talented she remains.

On the "Out in Hollywood" movie scale, "Dreamgirls" gets four stars (out of four)! Congratulations to the cast, to director-screenwriter Bill Condon and to Paramount Pictures who are going to not only have a big hit on their hands, but many Oscar nominations to promote!
Original Supreme Mary Wilson has said that "Dreamgirls" is most certainly the story of the Supremes and even named her best-selling 1986 memoir "Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme." And in the book, Ross and Gordy come off as ambitious villians and Ballard, the original Supreme fired from the group at the height of its success and replaced by Cindy Birdsong, a self-destructive victim. I never felt the same way about Diana Ross after I read the book and neither did a lot of people: she never had another hit song after its release after a two-decade unbroken string of hit songs first with the Supremes then as a solo artist.
In the movie, Beyonce's character has more of a consience than Ross apparently ever did and made sure Hudson's Effie got her due and even invited her up on stage for the farewell performance of The Dreams. It was the kind of ending a lot of people wish Ballard (pictured, right) could have had. Instead, she never mended fences with Ross and Gordy and died at the age of 32 in poverty. Although in the movie, Effie has a child by Foxx's Taylor, in real life it was Ross who had a child with Gordy.

Even before Wilson's book was released, bad blood surface in 1984 at the Motown 25th Anniversary television special which was to be highlighted by a reunion of the Supremes: Ross, Wilson and Birdsong. As the women began singing "Someday We'll Be together," Wilson attempted to keep equal footing with Ross by not allowing her to move in front of the two other Supremes, as was her custom, and treat them like anonymous back-up singers. Although this was cut from the eventual NBC telecast, Ross got so irate that she shoved Wilson aside. Smokey Robinson was sent onstage to salvage the situation by joining the group for the song.
There was another opportunity for a reunion in the summer of 2000 when Ross decided to do a "Return to Love" tour and tried to recruit Wilson and Birdsong for a series of mostly Supremes music. One sticking point: Ross was to receive $20 million, Wilson $4 million and Birdsong even less. They declined and Ross and Wilson were interviewed by Barbara Walters (on separate nights, of course) about their feud. In the end, Ross decided that she'd go on tour anyway with two singers, Scherrie Payne and Lynda Lawrence (pictured with Ross), who she had never performed with but who had joined later incarnations of the Supremes long after Ross left the group.
I bought tickets for me and a cute guy and we were set to attend the Anaheim concert. But Ross had underestimated how badly most fans wanted to see the group reunite, not just her and two other singers. Poor ticket sales resulted in the tour being cancelled.
With all the ladies now in their early 60s and Wilson undergoing heart surgery earlier this year, time is running out. 'Dreamgirls" could either spur them to set aside their differences, or it could open old wounds. Well, at least we have the songs. We'll always have the songs.