Not every Broadway hit makes a quick move to the West End but Tom Eyen and Henry
Krieger's 1981 show
Dreamgirls taking until 2016 to make it to London must be
one of the longest delays. The film adaptation a few years ago can't have hurt it
finally making the trip, as it now has an enthusiastic audience ready for it, so the
vast Savoy is the venue for Casey Nicholaw's production of a story set in the 1960s
and '70s, about black music making a play to break out of its "specialist" niche and
into the pop mainstream. Girl group The Dreams are childhood friends Effie (Amber
Riley, doing this to supplement her income because her day job as a Dream Ghost
doesn't pay so well,) Deena (Liisi LaFontaine) and Lorrell (Ibinabo Jack,) who sing
original songs composed by Effie's brother C.C. (Tyrone Huntley.) Shifty producer
Curtis (Joe Aaron Reid) convinces them to take a job as backing singers as a
stepping stone to their own career.
