Why was the original Dreamgirls so expensive?

[Gaveston2]

I'm sure you're right about "Steppin'", Mister Matt. I just remember finding it very distracting in the 2nd or 3rd row to have actors dancing 40 feet in the air above me. Knowing Bennett, I'm sure there was a rationale for the dance, but I found the actual staging distracting.

And I'm sticking to my guns about having Effie sing "And I Am Telling You..." behind a dressing room table! Not to mention the fact that the song violates every principle of musical theater: after a character sings for 7 minutes with that much force that she is "not going", SHE IS NOT GOING!

And yet in DREAMGIRLS, she does. And stays away through most of Act 2. Huh? What (stage) reality is this?

[EricMontreal22]

I love that Bennett had Effie not even really get the applause she earned from that number--since by the time audiences started applauding (although once the song became a hit it seems from recordings often they start applauding early) her scene had already been wiped away and the applause is for the other women performing.

[Gaveston2]

When I saw it, Eric, the audience applauded every sustained note she sang. And that was in the first few weeks before the recording was well known. It was very distracting to me at the time, as if Jennifer Holliday had stopped playing Effie and was doing her nightclub act.

[EricMontreal22]

Ugh that would drive me crazy...

[Gaveston2]

It seems to be customary for a certain audience. Now that I understand it (years of undergrad and grad school), it doesn't bother me.

But DREAMGIRLS was the first time I had ever encountered the custom.

[Mister Matt]

Actually Mister Matt the number didn't transform to the studio during a session but to an actual performance of their latest single by Jimmy Early and the Dreamettes as they literally marched and sashayed their way onto the stage "wiping" away the scenario that came before.

Thanks for clarifying. It's been so long, I remembered incorrectly that it was a performance, not a studio, which makes more sense of course.

[Gothampc]

"I love that Bennett had Effie not even really get the applause she earned from that number"

Interesting idea that the applause coming out of "AIATY" is for the Dreams. But it wasn't foolproof. I have a boot of the Boston tryout and the audience starts applauding on the last sustained "And I am telling you..."

[JoanBennett]

Another cost factor: The set required a heretofore unknown number of trucks to transport. The cost of those trucks and their drivers was enormous. If I remember right, the trucks were originally outfitted specifically for the equipment, so they were leased for a year at a time even though they were used for one load in and then sat for months, unused, while the sit-down ran

[Gaveston2]

The number of trucks is one more reason to suspect they were shipping a duplicate of the Broadway set, not a "touring version".