Review: Dreamgirls, UK Tour, at the Palace Theatre, Manchester

Back in Manchester again! And trying to write this after working for a solid 6 hours just on the work inbox (plus remaining hours catching up on usual tasks....). This is going to be interesting but here we go. 

You may remember, this is not the first time I have talked about Dreamgirls; I was lucky to catch the London run in its final couple of months in 2018, with Marisha Wallace (Oklahoma) playing Effie. 

And it blew me away. Of course. It was one of THE shows to see at the time. 

So of course, I wanted to catch it again, and this time to bring my Mum along, as she loved the film. 

I have gone into the history and story of the show in my previous write-up, but to cut a long story short, this original show (not jukebox like you would perhaps think), tells the creation, rise and career of a fictional girl group The Dreams, featuring friends Effie, Lorrell and Deena in the 1960s. Allegedly it is based on the story of Diana Ross & The Supremes. Whilst this has been denied time and again, if you look at the stories side by side, you will see some similarities... 

And that's all I am going to say on that subject. 

What hits you immediately is the soul of this show - which for me is the incredible music. This comes from the second Musical Director Simona Budd stands in the pit and starts hitting a cow bell high in the air! If you've not heard the score for Dreamgirls (how!), hearing it live is definitely best: you have soul, blues, RnB, disco, the full works. 

Add that incredible music in to a story about friendship, show business and manipulation. Allow me to explain. 

This is where Matt Mills' performance as the girls' manager Curtis Taylor Jr comes in - and his was better than the performance I saw in the West End! A true Slytherin, this Curtis' pride, and his ambition for the group to get to the top with HIS sound is so strong, that he isn't above manipulating teenage girls into the way HE wants them to be. 

Yes, you read that right. For much of Act 1, The Dreams (or Dreamettes if you want to refer to their beginnings), are only young teenage girls; and for this cast, they have leaned into choices that bring out the youthful and naive, especially with Natalie Kassanga as Deena. 

This time around, I was truly drawn attention to instances in the book of extreme toxicity from Curtis and the environment he creates; and going into Act 2, when it shows his relationship with Deena, there are moments when I thought he was going to cross over into Bill Sikes territory...! 

No wonder the audience cheered loud at his shortcomings, but I will say that Mills put in an incredible performance you couldn't help but at LEAST love to hate. 

But the show doesn't rest on Curtis and his toxic attitudes. 

No. It rests on its Effie. And Nicole Raquel Dennis blew the roof off the Palace Theatre. 

Effie's big solos were absolutely the highlights of the show, especially the show-stopping And I Am Telling You (I'm Not Going). This tour-de-force caused an end-of-Act 1 standing ovation for good reason.

However, I do also want to chuck in her take on I Am Changing, which got almost as big a cheer as it's more-well-known cousin. Whether it was from Dennis' voice or getting to see Effie get that swell in confidence after all the darkness in her life from being kicked out of The Dreams - either way, another incredible vocal. This was the girl who duetted with Jennifer Hudson on The Voice if you recall...!

If you haven't seen Dreamgirls before, then this is your chance to go and give this soulful show a watch. 

While I think some bits creatively have got a bit less sparkly while on the road, it's still incredibly glitzy and VERY set in the 60s/70s. 

Most importantly of all though, its heart and SOUL (hehe) are still there. And as Jimmy "Thunder" Early says "You can't kill a man with SOUL!"