Dreamgirls Wakes Up

There is an article in the New York Observer about DREAMGIRLS that you can read online. The picture above is also from the article. Here's an excerpt: "She killed it!” excitedly exclaimed a male audience member, filing out of the Loews theater on 34th Street on Nov. 21, after an early screening of Dreamgirls, the $70 million–plus joint release from Paramount/DreamWorks. He was referring to Jennifer Hudson’s rendition of the iconic Broadway torch song “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” five mellifluous, molto vibrato minutes that have suddenly catapulted Ms. Hudson, 25, an erstwhile failed American Idol contestant and Disney cruise-ship entertainer, into the position of front-runner for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. And that’s just the appetizer. “It’s theirs to lose,” declared a veteran industry insider, of a Best Picture contest that is fast shaping up to be yet another battle between the elites of Los Angeles and New York (like Crash versus Brokeback Mountain last year): big fistfuls of Dreamgirls stardust flung against the gangster grit of Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. But even jaded New Yorkers, judging from the unabashed applause that followed The Song last week, seem to be in a receptive mood for a little old-school, feel-good Hollywood bada-bing. It is wartime, after all. With that applause came a palpable exhalation of relief: This was not going to be another Rent or Phantom of the Opera train wreck. Dreamgirls, the movie, a quarter of a century in the making, the gay man’s Lord of the Rings, just might … yes! … live up to the hype." Read the rest of the article here. Source: New York Observer