During the second act she finds herself and realises it’s all about the music. All she wants to do is sing but there are a lot of obstacles that she has to overcome. She starts off as a young girl with big dreams. A lot of it is what I’m going through right now. As the youngest Effie, I feel a lot of resonance to the character in that period of her life. I’m like the Effie at the start of the show, just entering showbiz.
Karen: Dreamgirls is about three fabulous girls who come together and form a singing group and chase their dreams.
Black women, who don’t get many of these roles. Three, strong, powerful women in the lead. Marisha: Dreamgirls has three women leading, which you rarely get to see in all of musical theatre history. When I heard about the production opening in London I told my agents there’s no way you’re not getting me in that audition room. The story in Dreamgirls is something that anyone can relate to, if you have issues with your friends or family, sibling rivalry, ambition. She is very confident at the beginning of her journey and then she gets a little lost, but she grows a lot stronger and figures out who she is as a woman and finds her voice through soul music and is very triumphant again. Moya: Effie White is a tough girl with a big voice.
What first attracted you to the role of Effie, and to Dreamgirls in general? Both the role and the performances are built on confidence, on fighting adversity, and on a perfect delivery.Īs we continue to celebrate the role of women in theatre, marking 100 years since women obtained the vote in the UK, we speak to Moya Angela, Marisha Wallace and Karen Mav to find out more about starring in the poignant musical. Throughout the powerful musical, Effie deals with common difficulties resulting from ambition, and brilliantly mirrors the struggles faced daily by many women in entertainment. Their vocal stature is matched in the empowering story unfolding on the West End stage, with Dreamgirls telling the tale of Chicago outfit The Dreamettes. As highly influential producer Sonia Friedman notes, the role offers one of the biggest vocal performances in West End history, leading to the casting of “three extraordinary vocalists to play this iconic role”. Moya Angela, Marisha Wallace and Karen Mav have been sharing the role of Effie since, rotating their appearances throughout each week. When the award winning Amber Riley departed the West End cast of Dreamgirls in November 2017, three new leading ladies emerged to take her place. Moya Angela, Marisha Wallace and Karen Mav open up about sharing the lead role. It’s been released by a trio that sounds like they’re recording easy listening music for a megachurch elevator.Interview Interview: Dreamgirls’ Effies on the empowering tale It also follows “Cadillac Car,” Jimmy’s raunchy, sharply satirical number about consumerism. Tellingly, it follows a memorable scene that has Taylor fuming about the millions made by Elvis on the music of Moms Mabley and Big Mama Thornton. Eyen’s book feels abruptly incomplete as far as filling in Effie’s journey.ĭeena’s ascent to icon status is similarly perfunctory, outlandish photo shoots and headlining gigs playing out in swaths of taffeta, with Daniel going all-out disco for the club version of “One Night Only,” a song Effie had originally instilled with melancholy.īeyond Alakham’s “One Night Only,” the choral highlight comes in the first act, with the smooth-criminal stylings of “Steppin’ to the Dark Side.” Led by Rush leading an army of sharp-suited promoters bearing briefcases filled with cash, it references the “pay-to-play” radio scandals of the 1960s with stylish ruthlessness. But here, Effie simply vanishes for a few scenes and then shows up again, looking fabulous and acting contrite. In the movie, Effie’s downfall includes addiction and homelessness. When Alakham’s Effie hears from Taylor that her voice is too “special” to cross over into the pop charts and that she’s being replaced as lead by the more wispy-voiced Deena, you can see the emotional gut punch - and you can hear it in her seat-shaking performance of “And I Am Telling You.”
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