‘Dreamgirls’ not quite a dream ending for TUTS’ Epps
Sheldon Epps will be missed. The artistic adviser made a bold first statement at Theatre Under the Stars by revamping most of the company’s season to better reflect modern sensibilities.
His second artistic stroke was assembling top industry talent from Broadway — with Houston inclusions as well — and showing, through Emily Skinner’s marvelous presence in “Into the Woods,” what the company can achieve with the right kind of ambition.
Now, as he prepares to leave the organization, Epps gives us a final hurrah with “Dreamgirls,” the dazzling 1981 musical about a Supremes-esque trio originally starring Houston native Jennifer Holliday as Effie White. The show runs through April 16.
It’s an apt choice. After all, “Dreamgirls,” which Epps directs, is all about ambition. It not only tells the story of aspiration run rampant, it’s an immensely challenging musical, demanding its singers to maintain a power and range throughout its 30-plus numbers that, in another show, would be reserved for the end-of-Act-1 climax.
Which is why, at the end the first half of “Dreamgirls,” when Zonya Love reaches for the stars in “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” and doesn’t quite make it, the moment is, at first, forgivable. After all, as Effie, Love is the vocal powerhouse of the night, and redeems herself twice over in “I Am Changing,” a song that has the style, energy and attitude to make an audience want to leap to its feet (they didn’t).
Love lifted the night. Perhaps she didn’t care for the scorned-lover mentality of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” nor the shadow cast by both Jennifer Holliday and Jennifer Hudson for that song, and decided to make “I Am Changing” hers instead. It’s the more affirmative song, lyrically superior and musically almost as good, that uses the most triumphant costume change of the show to encapsulate Effie’s moment of transformation. Love sung it brilliantly.
But, as the technique hiccups, uneven singing, awkward scene transitions and an overall sense of rushed execution of the night piled on, Love’s missed opportunity in “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” turned into a symbol for the entire production. Here were performers of vast talent, stuck in a show that was almost great, almost the final masterstroke by Epps that we all wanted.
Here we see flashes of pure joy and artistry drowned out by missed cues, strange lighting direction or unbalanced sound. E. Clayton Cornelious was the second star of the night as the flamboyant singer Jimmy “Thunder” Early, channeling both Eddie Murphy (who played the same role in the 2006 film) and James Brown. His acting was so infectiously comedic, his singing so confident and sensual, that he might have saved the show if the night was about him. Take the best of Cornelious and Love in “Dreamgirls,” and you have an achievement worthy of Houston musical theater history. Take the worst of the production, and you have a goodbye for Epps that’s bittersweet for all the wrong reasons.
Sure, no one can deny Epps’ strong choice in this musical. Centering on the conflict between Effie, a talented aspiring soul singer, and her lighter-skinned, skinnier and therefore more “palatable” bandmate Deena (Phoenix Best, who struggles with the same issues of balance and consistency most of the cast does), “Dreamgirls” explores the evolution of American R&B — its origins in soul and Motown, then its watering-down into disco — by way of a story about the artist’s battle between authenticity and salesmanship.
Aside from some unconvincing swooning early on, the musical has lost none of its potency. As an ode to the power of black women, its politics still ring true. But what was disappointing was that the missteps of the evening had nothing to do with the story of “Dreamgirls” or the story of what was going on with TUTS or Epps, and everything to do with all the smaller, more technical aspects that could have been fixed with a few more dress runs.
I’d like to think I saw a stellar production that wasn’t yet itself. Epps has once again put an overwhelming amount of talent into one room, energizing Houston’s theater landscape with his national reach. He showed the audience that even an imperfect production that dares to aim high is more exciting than a safe one that simply wants to please.