Dreamgirls (2006) on Netflix
PG-1320062h 10mDramaMusicMusical
In 1962 Detroit, Effie White leads The Dreamettes with Deena Jones and Lorrell Robinson. Car salesman Curtis Taylor Jr. becomes their manager and books them as backup for Jimmy "Thunder" Early.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.6/1081,462 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes79%
Trailer
Plot summary
Detroit, 1962. The Dreamettes, a trio led by Effie White with Deena Jones and Lorrell Robinson behind her, have talent but no breakthrough. At an amateur night at the Detroit Theatre, car salesman Curtis Taylor Jr. offers to manage them and lands them work singing backup for R&B star Jimmy "Thunder" Early. Curtis sets up Rainbow Records from his Cadillac dealership, with Effie's brother C.C. White writing songs. When a white pop group covers the group's first single, Curtis uses payola to push them toward mainstream pop audiences. Effie and Curtis become lovers, the married Jimmy takes up with Lorrell, and Curtis's ideas about the group's sound and image set him and Effie at odds.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Dreamgirls (2006)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- A total of 783 singing actresses auditioned for the role of Effie White, among them the American Idol alumnae Fantasia Barrino and Jennifer Hudson, the former Disney star Raven-Symoné, and the Broadway stars Capathia Jenkins and Patina Miller.
- Dreamgirls was the first film in Academy Award history to receive the highest number of nominations for the year yet not be nominated for Best Picture, and its failure to get a Best Picture or Best Director nod was widely viewed by the entertainment press as a snub.
- Four days were spent shooting Jennifer Hudson's number And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going, which had been saved until the end. Originally scheduled for one day, it needed extra time and money because Hudson's voice gave out after four hours and she could not plausibly lip-sync while hoarse.
- Smokey Robinson told NPR he was offended by the portrayal of the film's Berry Gordy analogue, Curtis Taylor Jr., as a villainous character who deals in payola, and said DreamWorks and Paramount owed Gordy an apology; on February 23, a week before the Oscars, the studios issued one.
- Beyoncé Knowles chose to lose weight so the mature 1970s Deena Jones would look different from the younger version, and on a highly publicized diet of water, lemons, maple syrup and cayenne pepper, known as the Master Cleanse, she rapidly lost twenty pounds, gaining it back once production ended.
- David Geffen began talks with the Broadway lyricist and producer Howard Ashman about adapting Dreamgirls as a star vehicle for Whitney Houston as Deena, but Houston wanted to sing both Deena's and Effie's songs, and after Ashman's death in 1991 the film was abandoned.
- Anika Noni Rose, a Broadway veteran and Tony Award winner, won the part of Lorrell Robinson, and at five feet two inches she was shorter than most of her co-stars, so she had to wear and dance in four and five-inch heels for much of the picture, which she said caused her discomfort.
- Though Fantasia Barrino emerged as an early frontrunner for the part of Effie, Hudson was eventually selected, leading Barrino to telephone Hudson and jokingly complain that Hudson had stolen her part.
