The run closed August 11, 1985
- Opened
- December 20, 1981
- Closed
- August 11, 1985
- Performances
- 1,521
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- Imperial Theatre
Of the 465 productions we hold that opened in the 1980s and record a performance count, this is the 7th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Other stagings of Dreamgirls 3 more that season
| 1987 | Ambassador Theatre Revival · Michael Peters | 177 perf. |
| 2001 | Ford Center For The Performing Arts Revival · Brenda Braxton | 1 perf. |
| 2017 | Transfer Transfer |
Who was in it71 named
Vondie Curtis Hall
Tony Franklin
David Thome
Cheryl Alexander
Phylicia Ayers Allen
Vanessa Bell
Charles Bernard
Paul Binotto
Candy Darling
Ronald Dunham
Stephanie Eley
Sheila Ellis
Thomas Scott Gordon
Tenita Jordan
Linda Lloyd
Carol Logen
Joe Lynn
Frank Mastrocola
Jamie Patterson
Wellington Perkins
Scott Plank
Charles Randolph Wright
Larry Stewart
Weyman Thompson
Linda Leilani Brown
Teresa Burrell
Terry Burrell
Lawrence Clayton
Roz Ryan
Vanessa Townsell
Richie Abanes
Khandi Alexander
Ethel Beatty
Susan Beaubian
Ray Benson
Mary Denise Bentley
Barry Bruce
Abe Clark
Lisa Grant
Christopher Gregory
Nina Hennessey
Rhetta Hughes
Roy Jones
Julia Mcgirt
Hal Miller
Tim Millett
Gordon Owens
Richard Poole
Graciela Simpson
Ronald Smokey Stevens
Leon Summers Jr
Gina Taylor
Johnnie Teamer
Buddy Vest
Sean Walker
16 of these 71 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 55 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name — so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.
Characters9 roles recorded
Jennifer Holliday Effie Melody White
Sheryl Lee Ralph Deena Jones
Loretta Devine Lorrell Robinson
Ben Harney Curtis Taylor Jr.
Cleavant Derricks James "Thunder" Early
Obba Babatundé C.C. White
Deborah Burrell Michelle Morris
Vondie Curtis-Hall Marty Madison
Tony Franklin Wayne
Only 512 of 13,459 productions carry role names, and these came out of a wiki table — the names arrived with the table's own cell markup on them and have been stripped back. They are not linked to person records because the identifiers in that table do not resolve to ours.
Creative team
- Director
- Michael Bennett
- Choreographer
- Michael Bennett
- Producer
- Michael Bennett, Bob Avian, Geffen Records
- Orchestrations
- Harold Wheeler
A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.
Tony Awards 6 from 13 nominations
| Best Musical | Nominated |
Around this production
Jennifer Holliday\'s performance of "And I Am Telling You" at the 1982 Tony Awards received the longest standing ovation in the ceremony\'s history. The audience would not stop.
Dreamgirls December 20, 1981 More Opening Nights On Broadway Steven Suskin, p. 1110
- Lone with Dreamgirls, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Tommy Tune’s other visual extravaganza, Nine, Grand Hotel was one of the truly towering directorial achievements of the last twenty-five years. Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 144
- Backstage 1989’s Grand Hotel was the first American musical since 1983’s La Cage Aux Folles to run over 1,000 performances. like Dreamgirls. Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 146
- The flow and character detail in the stunning, cinematic opening sequence of his directorial masterpiece, Dreamgirls, shows a genius at the absolute top of his sometimes tortured powers, and his death while still at his peak is one of the great losses in the history of Broadway. Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 279
- His last successful show was Dreamgirls (1981). Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical Volume 22 William A Everett Paul R, p. 65
- Black Musical Theatre: From “Coontown” to “Dreamgirls.” Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical Volume 22 William A Everett Paul R, p. 438
Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.
What this page does not know
- No photograph of this staging. 48 of 13,459 productions hold one.
- No recording is held for Dreamgirls at all.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.