* Tom Eyen-American experimental playwright, lyricist, and theatre director, author of Dreamgirls for which he won the 1981 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical

She landed a role in Dreamgirls, the film adaptation of the 1981 hit Broadway musical about a 1960s singing group loosely based on Motown all-female group The Supremes.

Ironically, she starred in the film adaptation of the 1981 Broadway musical Dreamgirls as Deena Jones, the front woman of the Dreams, a female singing group based on the Supremes.

When Dreamgirls premiered in late 1981, Jennifer Holliday had taken over the lead.

The film was based on the 1981 musical Dreamgirls, but the film made the connection to Gordy and Motown much more explicit than the musical did, by, among other things, moving the setting of the story from Chicago to Detroit.

Since then, it has hosted numerous important musicals, including Annie Get Your Gun ( 1946 ), Fiddler on the Roof ( 1964 ), Dreamgirls ( 1981 ), The Mystery of Edwin Drood ( 1985 ) and Les Misérables ( 1990 ), which played at the theatre until 2003.

* 1981: Dreamgirls

Bennett had another hit in 1981 with Dreamgirls, a backstage epic about a girl-group like The Supremes and the expropriation of black music by a white recording industry.

The title of the book is a reference to Dreamgirls, a 1981 Broadway musical loosely based on the lives and careers of the Supremes.

She appeared on Broadway starring in Chicago, Bob Fosse's Dancin, and Dreamgirls.

Two famous natives of Riverside are singer-actress Jennifer Holliday ( born 1960 ), best known for her creation of the role of Effie in the successful Tony-award winning Broadway musical " Dreamgirls "; and Eugene C. Barker, Texas historian ( born 1874 ).

In 1978, Carter was cast as Effie White in the Broadway musical Dreamgirls, but departed the production during development to take a television role on the ABC-TV soap opera, Ryan's Hope in New York.

Geffen was the Broadway backer for the musicals Dreamgirls and Cats.

It released the original off-Broadway cast recording and the film soundtrack of Little Shop of Horrors, the original Broadway cast recordings of Dreamgirls and Les Misérables, and the original Broadway cast recording of Cats.

* Dreamgirls: Original Broadway Cast Album ( 1982 )

Hinton ’ s other Broadway starring roles include Dancin ', Dreamgirls, Sophisticated Ladies for which he won his first Tony Award, Chicago ( Billy Flynn ) and Ragtime ( Coalhouse Walker Jr .), which garnered rave reviews from the Chicago press and earned him an Ira Aldridge Award.

In 2006, the film Dreamgirls, based on the Broadway stage musical, was given a three-theater road show release, with reserved seats and program guides.

She next landed the role of Effie White in the workshop of the Michael Bennett-directed musical Dreamgirls, but when the show moved to Broadway, Bennett chose Jennifer Holliday for the role.

Bennett and Peters shared a 1982 Tony Award for Best Choreography for their work on the Broadway musical Dreamgirls.

Calloway began her career as a dancer in Michael Bennett's original Broadway production of Dreamgirls.

She starred in the Broadway musicals Dreamgirls, Don't Play Us Cheap, and Amen Corner, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award in the category Best Actress in a Musical in 1984.

* Dreamgirls, a musical based on the career of The Supremes

* The character of Curtis Taylor, Jr., a music executive, in the 2006 musical film Dreamgirls has been called " a thinly veiled portrayal " of Gordy.

Scherrie performed a high energy version of her own hit ' One Night Only ', from the musical Dreamgirls.

The rock musical soon moved in other directions with shows like The Wiz, Raisin, Dreamgirls and Purlie, which were heavily influenced by R & B and soul music.

In Dreamgirls, Bennett's musical staging was described as a " mesmerizing sense of movement ":

Vélez landed her first job performing in the national touring company of the musical Dreamgirls.

Lauren landed her first job performing in the national touring company of the musical Dreamgirls.

The national tour of the Tony Award winning musical In the Heights from May 12-June 13, 2010 and the much acclaimed national tour of Dreamgirls played four weeks beginning in August 2010.

The world premiere musical comedy was a collaboration between composer Phillip Luna ( Fear Snakeface, Royal Punisher, Psychics, Worm, Def Space, and the legendary Taco Land house band, Shit City Dreamgirls ) and writer / lyricist Jon Gillespie ( Sheer Bloody Lunacy !, D. O. A.

In 2007, Mosley starred in the musical production of Dreamgirls at the TUTS Theater in Houston, TX.

Garrett has been nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Original Song, and has won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 49th Grammy Awards for co-writing " Love You I Do " ( performed by Jennifer Hudson ) for the 2006 musical film, Dreamgirls.

", which she recorded as a member of the group Glass House and was featured on their second album, Payne has had club hits, such as " I'm Not In Love " ( featuring sister Freda Payne and former Supreme Mary Wilson on backing vocals ) in 1982, followed two years later by " One Night Only ", a song from Act II of the play and movie " Dreamgirls ", which, interestingly, is a show based loosely on the history of the Supremes and the advancing of the Motown sound into the Disco era.

She was also part of the play Rise, written by Salt from Salt-n-Pepa and Christopher " Play " Martin from the rap group Kid ' n Play and starred in an off-Broadway production of Dreamgirls as Deena Jones.

Jennifer Hudson won a Golden Globe Award and Academy Award for her portrayal of Effie White in the “ Dreamgirls ” film.

* Chats with Hinton (“ Idlewild ,” “ Dreamgirls ”) Battle and Boyd (“ Angela ’ s Eyes ”) Gaines, Playbill interview, July 2006

The film version of Dreamgirls released in 2006 features more overt references to Ballard's life and the Supremes ' story, including gowns and album covers that are direct copies of Supremes originals.

The 2007 release of the film Dreamgirls, a work loosely based on the real-life Supremes, found Wilson sharing several appearances with the film's stars.

She has performed principal roles in the following plays: Dreamgirls ( National Tour ), Wicked Ways ( National Tour ), Smokey Joe ’ s Café ( National Tour ), Footloose ( National Tour ), Ain ’ t Misbehavin ' ( National Tour ), The Wiz, and Medea and Beehive.

Other artists such as Maxwell, Nas and Common adapted his early 1970s fashion style of wearing kufis and beanie skull caps and jean outfits which was also later appropriated by Eddie Murphy in his role as James " Thunder " Early in Dreamgirls, while Michael Jackson, who admitted Gaye was an influence on his music and once described his music as " ridiculous " in a good way, in 2001, allegedly was also influenced by Gaye's fashion style in the 1980s adapting the military-styled suits Gaye wore on his final concert tour.

Drake also starred as Smallweed in the BBC adaptation of Bleak House ( 1985 ), and Filipina Dreamgirls, a TV film for the BBC.

Jennifer Hudson faced the same situation as she was ineligible because she had been nominated with Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media for Dreamgirls in 2008.

** Dreamgirls – Book and lyrics by Tom Eyen, music by Henry Krieger.

In early December 2006, news came that Brown and Murphy were no longer a couple, and Murphy told a journalist of the Dutch TV show RTL Boulevard at the Dreamgirls film premiere that the parentage of Brown's unborn baby could not be proven until a paternity test has been performed.

" Dreamgirls, Ali, and Californication also filmed there.

* Payne Records Dreamgirls Tune -- Jet Magazine, 21 May, 1984-v. 66Page 54 Google Books

It laid the foundation for later African-American hits like Bubbling Brown Sugar, Dreamgirls and Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies.