NEED TO KNOW
Dreamgirls will return to Broadway in fall 2026 in its first-ever revival
Camille A. Brown will direct and choreograph the Tony-winning musical
A worldwide casting search is underway to find the next generation of The Dreams
More than four decades after Dreamgirls first made Broadway history, the beloved musical is headed back to the boards.
On Monday, Sept. 15, producers Sonia Friedman, Sue Wagner, John Johnson and LaChanze announced that the Tony Award–winning hit will return in fall 2026 in its first-ever Broadway revival.
Camille A. Brown — a five-time Tony Award nominee known for her work on Gypsy, Hell’s Kitchen, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf and Once on This Island — will direct and choreograph the new production. This will be the first time she’s directed a show on Broadway.
No casting has been set, but the production is launching a worldwide talent search to find the three powerhouse singers, known as The Dreams, at the center of the musical. Open calls will be held in cities across the U.S. and abroad, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, Miami, London, Toronto, Mexico City, Amsterdam, Rome and Paris.
Dreamgirls is one of the great American musicals. Inspired in part by the rise of Motown and girl groups of the 1960s and 1970s, the show followed a trio of young Black women navigating the highs and heartbreaks of the music industry.
The show first premiered at the Imperial Theatre in 1981 and was directed and choreographed by Michael Bennett, the visionary behind A Chorus Line. With a book and lyrics by Tom Eyen and music by Henry Krieger, the musical blended the sounds of R&B and soul with Broadway storytelling.
It was an immediate sensation, shooting actors Sheryl Lee Ralph, Loretta Devine and Jennifer Holliday to stardom. The production earned 13 Tony Award nominations and won six, including Best Book of a Musical and featured acting honors for Holliday and Cleavant Derricks.
Martha Swope/New York Public Library
Jennifer Holliday, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Loretta Devine in ‘Dreamgirls’ on Broadway
Holliday’s powerhouse rendition of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” became one of Broadway’s most iconic showstoppers, regularly stopping the show mid-act as audiences leapt to their feet. In his rave review for The New York Times, critic Frank Rich declared, “When Broadway history is being made, you can feel it.”
Songs like “One Night Only,” “I Am Changing” and the title number “Dreamgirls” became instant classics, securing the score a place in the Broadway canon and influencing generations of performers.
The original production ran on Broadway through August 1985. It was so successful that an international tour returned to New York city from June 1987 to November of that year.
Productions have since played worldwide, including a celebrated 2016 London revival that starred Amber Riley, who won an Olivier Award for her performance as Effie White.
In 2006, Dreamgirls found a whole new audience with its big-screen adaptation. Directed by Bill Condon, the film starred Beyoncé, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Anika Noni Rose and Jennifer Hudson, who made her acting debut as Effie.
Hudson’s show-stopping performance of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” earned her both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award, launching her into superstardom. The movie itself won two Oscars and solidified the story’s place in pop culture history.
Now, nearly 45 years after its debut, Dreamgirls hopes to dazzle Broadway once again.
Additional details will be revealed in the months ahead.
Read the original article on People
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com ’
