‘Dreamgirls’ reigns supreme at Porchlight Music Theatre

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Eric Lewis (from left), Candace C. Edwards, Donica Lynn, Katherine Thomas, Gilbert Domally and Evan Tyrone Martin in the Porchlight Music Theatre production of “Dreamgirls.” (Photo: Kelsey Jorissen)

Warning: There is a cast on fire at Stage 773, where Porchlight Music Theatre is presenting such a blazing revival of “Dreamgirls” that you really have to wonder why the name of each and every one of its stellar performers (led by the show-stopping Donica Lynn, Eric Lewis and Evan Tyrone Martin), as well as its director-choreographer Brenda Didier, and music director Doug Peck, is not on a Broadway marquee. But forget Broadway. This is unadulterated Chicago brilliance at work, and the talent on hand for this volcanic production threatens to blow the roof off the place.

The combination of rocket-force voices, eye-popping acrobatic dance moves, full-force storytelling and feverish emotional chemistry — from first beat to last — is thrilling. And at Tuesday’s opening it all generated a sustained (and richly deserved) standing ovation the likes of which I haven’t seen in a Chicago theater in a very long time.

This revival also serves as a vivid reminder that “Dreamgirls,” the Tony Award-winning 1981 musical with a high-powered, wholly original score by Henry Krieger, and book and lyrics by Tom Eyen, remains the finest show about the great R&B and pop music sensations of the 1960s as it weaves an account of the stormy personal and professional lives of such (thinly veiled) superstars as The Supremes, James Brown and others. Krieger and Eyen didn’t need to rely on the jukebox rep. They crafted bravura songs of their own that are far above and beyond any pastiche.

Donica Lynn stars as Effie in the Porchlight Music Theatre production of “Dreamgirls.” (Photo: Kelsey Jorissen)

Donica Lynn stars as Effie in the Porchlight Music Theatre production of “Dreamgirls.” (Photo: Kelsey Jorissen)

‘DREAMGIRLS’

Highly recommended

When: Through May 22

Where: Porchlight Music Theatre at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont

Tickets: $35 – $51

Info: http://www.porchlightmusictheatre.org

Run time: 2 hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission

The show traces the evolution of The Dreamgirls, who start off as The Dreams, a naive but talented trio of teenage girls from Chicago. The least glamorous girl in the group, but the most talented and troubled is Effie Melody White (Donica Lynn, whose astonishing voice and fierce acting chops here should catapult her to stardom). Her friends include Lorell Robinson (the radiant Katherine Thomas in a richly realized portrayal), the girl who falls for the married, work-obsessed Jimmy “James Thunder” Early (played brilliantly by Eric Lewis, whose hardcore soul renditions and spectacular acrobatics are alone worth the price of a ticket). The youngest is Deena Jones (Candace C. Edwards), the lovely beauty who will eventually morph into a glamorous Diana Ross-type figure “mentored” by the Berry Gordy-like producer, Curtis Taylor Jr. (played with searing intensity by Evan Tyrone Martin). Composing the songs for The Dreams is Effie’s shy but gifted brother, C.C. White (a moving turn by Gilbert Domally).

The Dreams begin by competing in a talent contest at New York’s fabled Apollo Theatre, where (in just one of many indications of how corrupt the music business of the time could be), they lose to a winner selected because of a bribe. They briefly work as backup singers for the wild and raging Early, but Taylor has bigger ideas in mind as he works to push them into a crossover sound that will earn them a white audience, and the fame and money that comes with that. Of course there is the matter of Effie, who adores him, but who is pushed from front to side in favor of the younger and more commercial Deena, and further devastated when he makes Deena his lover.

Didier’s magic is at work in every beat of this pulsating production that sears the heart, and transforms even grand production numbers and driving choreography into the stuff of fiercely played scenes. Lynn, who easily puts her own distinctive spin on the role that catapulted Jennifer Hudson (another Chicago talent) to fame, stops the show with her tour de force renderings of “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going,” “I Miss You Old Friend,” and “Faith in Myself.” But it is her pairing with Peck (onstage at the piano) in “I am Changing” that  might just break your heart most conclusively.

But from the playfully seductive “Cadillac Car,” and the synchronized moves of the Five Tuxedos, to “One Night Only” and the title song, there is not a single moment that won’t hold you captive. And then there is the sensational band, with Peck leading Cullen Bogan, Jake Saleh Larry Roberts Jr., Gregory Strauss and Adam DeGroot in a soul meets Motown and Broadway sound, that could not be more authentic.

All in all, it’s a dream of a “Dreamgirls.” And a production that should inspire Broadway in Chicago to make Porchlight their “company-in-residence” at the Broadway Playhouse.

Donica Lynn (from left) is Effie White; Candace C. Edwards is Deena Jones and Katherine Thomas is Lorrell Robinson in the Porchlight Music Theatre production of “Dreamgirls.” (Photo: Kelsey Jorissen)

Donica Lynn (from left) is Effie White; Candace C. Edwards is Deena Jones and Katherine Thomas is Lorrell Robinson in the Porchlight Music Theatre production of “Dreamgirls.” (Photo: Kelsey Jorissen)

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