ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS: 1. SYNOPSIS In 1960s Detroit, a good night onstage can get you noticed but it won't get your song played on the radio. Here, a new kind of music is on the cusp of being born – a sound with roots buried deep in the soul of Detroit itself, where songs are about more than what's on the surface, and everyone is bound together by a shared dream. 2. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS DREAM: BRINGING THE LEGEND TO LIFE "Dreamgirls" was an anomaly when it came to life on the Broadway stage in the early 1980s directed by Michael Bennett. While visually the play was unlike anything ever attempted on Broadway, it was the intense human drama and moving, show-stopping songs that redefined musical theater for the era. 3. LISTEN: WRITER-DIRECTOR BILL CONDON ADAPTS THE BOOK The original Broadway production of Dreamgirls was 'one of those experiences you never forget,' Bill Condon remembers. 'The story of the crossover success of African-American music during the 1960s resonates more than ever today, when African-American culture almost defines the mainstream.' 4. WHEN I FIRST SAW YOU: SINGING AND DANCING IN DREAMGIRLS Despite the enormous effect the original Broadway production had on Condon, for the film, he wanted to both honor the R&B sound of the '60s and '70s while infusing the music itself with contemporary flavor. 5. CADILLAC CAR: PRODUCTION DESIGNER JOHN MYHRE CRAFTS A 'DREAMGIRLS' UNIVERSE From the beginning, Condon's vision for Dreamgirls was a fully realized, grittily real world in which the fable – so infused with the stuff of dreams – could unfold. 6. I AM CHANGING: THE LIGHT AND COLOR OF AN ERA THROUGH TOBIAS SCHLIESSLER'S LENS Bil Condon wanted to tell the story of Dreamgirls through a palpably real lens, with all the imperfections intact. Therefore, director of photography Tobias Schliessler's cinéma vérité-infused style carried over from the football epic "Friday Night Lights" brought precisely the kind of grit he wanted. 7. LOVE YOU I DO: THEATRICAL LIGHTING BY JULES FISHER & PEGGY EISENHAUER As a counterpoint to the realistic approach taken with live action sequences for the musical numbers, Condon wanted to bring back all the glamour and fireworks that galvanized the original production. 8. JIMMY'S RAP: COSTUMES, MAKEUP AND HAIR Oscar-nominated costumer Sharen Davis's challenge was to produce clothes that would evoke a sense of period but not exist merely as reproductions of the clothing of the '60s and '70s eras. 9. AND I AM TELLING YOU I'M NOT GOING: THE LEGACY OF "DREAMGIRLS" The music of the '60s and early '70s gave voice to a society in the throes of a revolution. When the sound of Motown began its saturation of the airwaves, it became the soundtrack for the Civil Rights movement breaking its way through the sheen of superficial Americana.

CADILLAC CAR: PRODUCTION DESIGNER JOHN MYHRE
CRAFTS A 'DREAMGIRLS' UNIVERSE

"Don't care where I'm bound.
Got these four wheels
Spinnin' round.
Me and my two-toned Caddy
Gonna blow this town."

From the beginning, Condon's vision for "Dreamgirls" was a fully realized, grittily real world in which the fable – so infused with the stuff of dreams – could unfold.

"Dreamgirls" was shot on location in and around Los Angeles, in venues including the early vaudevillian Palace Theatre and the Orpheum Theatre and Pasadena's historic Ambassador Auditorium. Filming also took place in the downtown Los Angeles Alexandria Hotel, where location scouts uncovered ornate columns and plasterwork that proved ideal for the '60s-era theaters featured in the film. "'Dreamgirls' brings us to a time that signaled massive changes in our music, our culture and our society," says Myhre. "It's an exciting time to re-create and a wonderful show to reinvent for the screen. The 1960s was also such a great era for design. I thought it would be fun if we could find some of the sense of theatrics in real-world settings."

In the Palace Theatre, where the balconies are set against the walls prohibitively far from the stage, Myhre had box seats built around the stage to bring the audience closer to the action. Condon, director of photography Tobias Schliessler and the camera crew were therefore able to capture the reactions of the crowds watching the performers.

The Palace itself also yielded a set piece that provided them with a key component in the introduction of James "Thunder" Early – a manually operated lift for transporting props from storage below up to the stage. The special effects team fitted the lift with a motor and allowed Early to rise as if by magic before the star-struck Dreamettes for the first time.

Condon structured the film to be book-ended by two important performances, both taking place at the Detroit Theatre – the talent competition that brings the core characters together for the first time, and the farewell concert of Deena Jones and The Dreams. For both shows, the Palace Theatre stood in for the Detroit Theatre. "We chose not to fix it up," says Myhre. "The idea is that they could have chosen to do their Farewell Concert at any huge venue in the world. We thought it would be nice if they decided, 'Hey, it's our final show. Let's do it where we started.' It was nice for the movie to end up at the same place."

Production constructed sets recreating Miami's opulent Crystal Room and Caesar's Palace on the soundstages of the Los Angeles Center Studios. "It's an escalation of riches, so to speak," says executive producer Patricia Whitcher, "in terms of the types of audiences that they perform for and the venues they perform in."

A key set in the production is Curtis' Cadillac dealership, which then transforms into his offices and recording studios. "Curtis made money as a car dealer before turning record producer," says Myhre. "Dealerships of the period were so theatrical in and of themselves, they lent themselves perfectly to the musical aspects of the film."

Finding the right period setting for the showroom in contemporary Los Angeles was a challenge Myhre relished. "We drove up and down virtually every business street in town where there still exist brick buildings and lovely old architecture, and an absence of palm trees," he says: "We found a vacant lot that had a brick building on one side of it, and the real wonder was across the street – a beautiful brick church."

Myhre and Condon both sensed the presence of a church so close to the birthplace of this music was absolutely truthful to the world they wanted to bring to life. "When we looked at the church, I could just hear Gospel music coming out of it," Myhre recalls. "I thought, 'Wow, what a great way to ground the set we're going to build.'"

It took roughly thirty craftsmen two months to construct Curtis' dealership on this lot; the space was later quickly redressed to become the original offices of Curtis' company, Rainbow Records. To shoot later sequences as Rainbow evolves, production relocated the company to the venerated Los Angeles Times' building, with its beautiful wood walls, huge panes of glass and massive stone floors.

"These settings tell us something about the characters associated with that place," explains Myhre. "Curtis moves his cars away and their space is gradually taken up with recording equipment. The dealership is transformed into the Detroit offices of Rainbow Records. Then, when the offices are moved to Los Angeles, when Curtis and Rainbow are at the height of success, these offices are representative of what Curtis has become. It's a big, strong, masculine space that the other characters have to relate to. The building is almost him. It's the same with his house."

The finely designed contemporary home that represents the great success Curtis achieves with Deena's career was embodied by the famed Sinatra House in Chatsworth, California, which Myhre's team dressed with vintage finds from the early 1970s. The predominantly glass structure was owned by Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball at certain points in its storied history.

"This superlative team of committed artists and designers was able to conjure the transitional world of 'Dreamgirls' – from its Detroit beginnings in the early '60s to New York, Miami, and California, spanning two decades of cultural change. Working from well-chosen locations and beautiful, wholly created sets, they synthesized everything into a period-inspired place unique to this musical," observes Condon.