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.

AND I AM TELLING YOU I'M NOT GOING: THE LEGACY OF "DREAMGIRLS"

"There's no way I can ever go.
No no there's no way
I'm living without you.
I'm not living without you.
I don't want to be free."

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.

Berry Gordy, Jr., a professional boxer and veteran of the Korean War, couldn't sing but he could play a little piano, had a great ear, and knew how to write a song. In the 1950s, he met an ambitious teenager named William "Smokey" Robinson. With Gordy producing and Robinson writing and singing, they recorded the single "Got a Job" (an answer to the Silhouettes hit, "Get a Job") for New York–based End records. The song rose to No. 1 on the R&B charts, but when Gordy received a royalty check for $3.19, he realized he was on the wrong side of the music business. In 1959, he created Motown Records with an $800 loan from his family. Smokey Robinson became vice president of the label. Gordy purchased a two-story house on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit and converted the garage and basement into the primitive Hitsville U.S.A. recording studio.

Gordy fastidiously scrutinized every new act he signed for wardrobe, makeup, wigs, choreography, and grooming – no detail escaped him. Echoing Gordy's philosophy, the company's first hit was Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)," followed by the Miracles' "Shop Around." A year later, the Marvelettes scored the label's first No. 1 pop hit with "Please Mr. Postman."

Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and Diana Ross were girls from the Brewster Projects in Detroit, barely out of high school when Gordy signed them in 1961. Overnight, the former Primettes (originally a quartet) became the Supremes. In 1964, "Where Did Our Love Go" became their first No. 1 smash, followed by eleven more No. 1 hits over the next five years. They performed on "American Bandstand" and "The Ed Sullivan Show," and became an international sensation.

Berry Gordy's gamble birthed 110 Top 10 hits between 1961 and 1971, from such icons as Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Mary Wells, Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Four Tops, and the Jackson Five. These artists and Gordy created the historic Motown Sound, a sound that defined an era and broke musical, racial, social, and national barriers. They charted the course of popular music and paved the way for future black artists to find success with mainstream audiences around the world.

"I remember being eight-years-old and begging my father to take my sisters and me to the Brooklyn Paramount theater to see Diana Ross and the Supremes," remembers Condon. "I was obsessed with them and other Motown groups at a very young age. I heard all of this amazing music in the context of the time – this famous march in Detroit led by Marin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights movement, particularly a speech in 1963. All of this history gives a scale and context for the story of 'Dreamgirls.' While ostensibly it's about the music and the rise of this group, just beneath the surface it tells a very personal story of the struggle African-Americans faced in seeking an end to the kind of accepted bigotry of the era."

"Dreamgirls" began life as a musical called "Big Dreams," written by Tom Eyen and Henry Krieger. The show was workshopped for Joseph Papp at the Public Theatre, with Nell Carter singing the role of Effie White. When Carter left to take the lead in the hit sitcom "Gimme A Break," the project was shelved.

One year later, Eyen and Krieger brought ten songs from the workshop to producer Bob Avian and Michael Bennett, the director/choreographer whose status as a Broadway sensation had already been cemented by his magnum opus, "A Chorus Line," which had earned him the Pulitzer Prize, two Tony Awards, and two Drama Desk Awards. Krieger played the piano and sang the men's parts, and two performers from the workshop – Sheryl Lee Ralph and Loretta Devine – sang the women's parts.

Bennett and Avian took the project on. Michael Peters was hired as co-choreographer, and the musical went through four workshops and numerous rewrites over the next eighteen months. David Geffen and the Shubert Organization joined Bennett and Avian as producers.

Jennifer Holliday, who would make Broadway history as Effie, was hired by Bennett when he realized that no one else could sing the showstopper "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" as well as she could. Shortly before the premiere, the title was changed to "Dreamgirls."

On December 20, 1981, "Dreamgirls" opened at the Imperial Theatre. The opening night cast included Holliday, Ralph, Devine, Ben Harney, Cleavant Derricks, and Obba Babatundé.

Bennett's stature made it one of the most highly anticipated shows of the season, and it did not disappoint. "Dreamgirls" was an instant smash, earning acclaim from critics and nightly standing ovations from sold-out audiences. Venerated New York Times critic Frank Rich declared it "Broadway history…beautiful and heartbreaking…a show that strikes with the speed and heat of lightning," and Newsweek's Jack Kroll called it "stunning and stirring."

In 1982, "Dreamgirls" was honored with a remarkable thirteen Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. The show won six Tonys: Best Book of a Musical – Tom Eyen; Outstanding Actor in a Musical – Ben Harney; Outstanding Actress in a Musical – Jennifer Holliday; Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical – Cleavant Derricks; Outstanding Lighting Design – Tharon Musser; and Outstanding Choreography – Michael Bennett & Michael Peters. "Dreamgirls" was also nominated for ten Drama Desk Awards, and won three.

Bennett's Tony Award for his choreography would be his seventh and final honor from the American Theatre Wing; "Dreamgirls" was his final production before he succumbed to complications from AIDS on July 2, 1987. He was forty-four years old.

"Dreamgirls" ran on Broadway for nearly four years, thrilling audiences for 1,521 performances, before touring the United States and traveling to Paris and Japan. Productions have since been staged as far away as Berlin and Malaysia.

Now, twenty-five years after first bringing audiences to their feet, "Dreamgirls" finally arrives on the silver screen.