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January 06, 2007
Saturday Nite is Date Night
My Wife and I went out with friends last nite and saw Dreamgirls. The experience was amazing on a number of levels.
First, The audience at the theatre was clapping and participating in the event. I never enjoy that unless it's deliberate like Rocky Horror Picture Show. However, what this movie showed me was the the musical as a genre was back. Chicago, Moulin Rouge all suffered blazing the trail, but this movie made it. Everyone was in there for the musical and it worked.
Secondly, Tom Eyen who wrote the books and the lyrics for this movie and for Broadway is the most likely person responsible for this experience. Every lyric supported the progression of the movie. If Oklahoma was the first musical to progress the plot with song, Dreamgirls was the epitome of musical plot progression.
Finally, I want to point out Eddie Murphy in particular. In someways this is a disservice to the movie, because this was an very much an ensemble cast. They did a great job and from beginning to end as did the team behind the scenes. I felt like care to every detail of costume (Sharen Davis) and style were played correctly. \
However, back to my point. Eddie Murphy has been part of my life for ages. Buckwheat on Saturday Nite Live, 24 hours, Eddie Murphy - Raw, Beverly Hills Cop, Bowfinger, Dr. Doolittle, etc. For him to pull off the role and to show the depth of the character was stellar. As we progress from aspects of Little Richard, the Fifth Dimension and James Brown, I saw the actor fill each role.
As I said I dont mean to a disservice to the rest of the cast Jamie Fox, Beyonce Knowles, Jennifer Hudson, Keith Robinson, Danny Glover and Hinton Battle all were fantastic. But Eddie played the part smaller than I would expect of him.
If you have not seen it. Go its worth it.
Posted by carl at January 6, 2007 12:55 PM