"Dreamgirls"

Nottingham Theatre Royal

The Dreamgirls are Effie, Lorrell and Deena – three talented young singers in the turbulent 1960s, a revolutionary time in American music history. They start out as backing singers for Jimmy Early, a James Brown caricature, who has all the moves and vocals of James Brown. The girls move onwards and upwards with their career but, even though Effie has the best voice, Curtis, their manager opts for Deena to be the lead vocalist, based on her looks. Effie knows that she is the better singer and this is when the stuff hits the fan.

Effie gets her own solo hit with a ballad version of "One Night Only" written by her brother, CC, so Curtis decides to get his own back and gets The Dreams - with a new third member, to record a disco version of the song which overtakes the ballad in sales and chart positions.

Deena, who has since married Curtis, decides that she wants to go solo as well, and not just in the recording sense, so Curtis gets back with Effie, and they all lived happily ever after.

Nicole Raquel Dennis as Effie White, Natalie Kassanga as Deena Jones, Paige Peddie as Lorrell Robinson, 

Nicole had her career kickstarted on The Voice UK in 2019, coincidentally, on that show, she sang "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going". The massive chandelier hanging from the roof of the Theatre Royal rattled, such was the power of Nicole's voice when she belted out this song with immense power and passion at the end of act one, and received a standing ovation to close the first part of the show. I've only seen this done once before.

Nicole has an immense voice and the power behind it can almost be felt pushing your rib cage back, again I've only had that sensation once before and that was while watching Madam Butterfly on stage. The passion and power this woman has is just incredible, and how she has the energy to do that night after night is just crazy.

Natasha played Diana Ross in "Motown the Musical" alongside other big West End credits. Another incredible singer, well all three of them are to be true. I've never seen an audience react in the way they did tonight to these three powerhouse vocalists, and when Deena and Effie duetted on "Listen" the crowd went absolutely crazy.

Paige was the ‘Unexpected Star’ on "Michael McIntyre’s Big Show" on Christmas Day, 2018, and is no stranger to the Nottingham stages as she has appeared in plays at the Nottingham Playhouse in the past. A wonderful comic element to Lorrell but to counter the comedy, she completed the tremendous trio of talented vocals.

Dom Hartley-Harris plays Curtis Taylor Jr., manager and lover of Effie's, and then Deena's husband. An underhand character who managed to rig the chart placings to show The Dreams beating Effie in the charts; and they denied payola existed eh? I half expected that at the final bows he's get a panto villain style welcome of "boos" because of the reactions he was getting during the musical but he was given a massive round of applause, and rightly so.

Brandon Lee Sears as Jimmy Early, and what a character he turned out to be. With the moves of James Brown and the vocal stylings of Little Richard, he lapped up the female admiration from the audience, especially in act two when he almost stripped to his zebra patterned pants in a foot to the floor funk number that Parliament and George Clinton would have been proud of. What an entertainer, and what an actor.

Shem Omari James as C.C. White, Effie's brother, was always there at the start for Effie, but after the split from the Dreams, he stayed on to write for them, which is where "One Night Only" came in, and coerced Effie to perform the song, the way that he had written it, as a ballad. There is a lovely moment further down the line where they reunited after Effie went her own way.

Jo Servi as Marty, Jimmy "Thunder" Early's manager to start with. You had to sympathise with this character as he had spent all the time building Early's r'n'b career up, just for someone else to come and pull the rug from under his feet and try to transform Early into some middle of the road Tony Bennett style crooner.

Brianna Ogunbawo as Michelle Morris. Michelle is the singer that Effie was replaced with after she had stopped turning up for rehearsals due to her not being well. We discover later that this is because she was pregnant with Curtis' baby.

The soundtrack contains some classic soul songs like "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going", "Listen", "I Am Changing" and "One Night Only". the orchestra sounded incredible with the lush soul arrangements, directed by Simona Budd. There were echoes of Philadelphia as well as the urban 1970's soul sound mixed in, which I absolutely loved.

Directed and Choreographed by Casey Nicholaw. What can I say? Sheer perfection! All of those wonderful synchronised dance routines I could remember from watching Top Of the Pops and the American Soul Train were in abundance for these soul superstars. The ensemble dancers didn't even look as if they had broken into a sweat but they all worked their butts off with the fantastic choreography.

Set and Costume Design by Tim Hatle. The sets were straight out of Las Vegas. You could imagine the performance halls of The Sands with all of the glitter and swathes of silk, and the lighting was fantastic. Costume wise there are sharp shiny suits for the men and sparkly and glamorous outfits for the ladies. they were like walking, talking, dancing glitter balls.

Be prepared as well for some lightning fast costume changes, including one change performed by Effie as she was mid way through auditioning when the change into a gorgeous shiny blue evening dress, as the scene changed from an audition room into a cabaret hall. This is all done in the blink of an eye. Ironically the song that Effie was singing was called "I Am Changing". It's just one of those wonderful magical stage moments that evolve before your eyes. Pure magic.

Lighting Design by Hugh Vanstone, and it enhanced every inch of that set. Although totally state of the art, the lights created a wonderful 1960's/1970's pastiche of colour. The reflection of light from the ladies' costumes practically blinded you.

Sound Design by Richard Brooker, and while I did hear a couple of people say it was too loud, it was not for me. Big, brash and beautiful at it's loudest, but with voices like these ladies have, you have to have a big sound to match. Wonderfully lush and evocative of the whole soul era of the 60's and 70's.

Hair Design by Josh Marquette. The stage is awash with afros and beehives and really conjures up the fashion feel of the era.

I had very high expectations of this musical, especially as I love the music of the soul periods of the 60's 70's and 80's, but this exceeded everything that i had hoped it would be. And I am telling you, these girls made for a dream night out, and one I shall remember for a very long time.

"Dreamgirls" is at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday 28 May.