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Dreamgirls began in the 1970s when playwright Tom Eyen and composer Henry Krieger workshopped a show about Black backup singers for Nell Carter under titles like One Night Only and Project Number Nine for Joseph Papp. Carter left for Ryan’s Hope in 1978, and a year later Michael Bennett of A Chorus Line revived it with backing from David Geffen, ABC Entertainment and the Shubert family. Twenty-year-old gospel singer Jennifer Holliday was cast as Effie White, then quit several times because early drafts killed Effie at the end of Act One and favored Deena, played by Cheryl Lee Ralph. Bennett rewrote the second act around Effie’s survival.

The plot follows the Dreamettes from a failed 1962 Apollo contest to manager Curtis Taylor Jr., who loses Cadillac Car to a white cover by Dave and the Sweethearts, turns to payola, demotes Effie for Deena and fires her in Las Vegas in 1967. The creators denied any link to the Supremes, though Bennett had danced behind them on Hullabaloo, and the parallels to Florence Ballard’s 1967 Las Vegas firing are close. Ballard, unlike Effie, got no comeback and died at 32. The 1981 run passed 1,500 performances, and in the 2006 film Jennifer Hudson won an Oscar as Effie and dedicated her Golden Globe to Ballard.

• A long-running rumor says Diana Ross attended in disguise and walked out at the end of Act One.
• In Act Two, Curtis buries Effie’s ballad One Night Only with a rushed disco version by Deena’s group.
• Holliday’s And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart.
• The 2006 film moved the early scenes from Chicago to Detroit and gave Jimmy Early a heroin overdose.
• A Broadway revival is planned for 2026 with Jennifer Hudson producing.