STAGE TUBE: Sheryl Lee Ralph Talks DREAMGIRLS, Jennifer Holliday & More

The DIVA Foundation founded in 1990 by Tony nominated actress, honored HIV/AIDS activist, Sheryl Lee Ralph, is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization, created as a living memorial to the many friends she had lost to HIV/AIDS as an original cast member of Broadways DREAMGIRLS and because of her concern for the threat HIV/AIDS posed to women and children. In her work of Driving Infectious Viruses Away, the foundation focuses on HIV/AIDS awareness, testing ,erasing stigma, lowering of the HIV infection rate especially as it pertains to women and young people and the development of new and effective programs to combat the disease using the arts. The foundation disseminates information, and provides advocacy and mobilization from a uniquely and unapologetically artistic feminine point of view.

Original DREAMGIR, Sheryl Lee Ralph is an acclaimed veteran of film, television and the Broadway stage. Her award winning body of work includes creating and originating the role of Deena Jones on Broadway in the landmark musical Dreamgirls, which earned her both a Tony and Drama Desk Award Nomination for Best Actress. After Dreamgirls, Ms. Ralph turned her attention to music, television and film. She scored a top-ten selling dance hit in the mid-eighties with the infectious anthem "In the Evening" and again in the nineties with her remake of "Here comes the Rain Again."

As a producer, Ms. Ralph created the critically acclaimed Divas Simply Singing!, an evening of song and entertainment that has become one of the most highly anticipated AIDS benefits in Hollywood. She is also the founding creator of The Jamerican Film & Music Festival which in five years has given birth to five SHOWTIME Filmmaker Finalists.

At the recent DIVAS Simply Singing fundraiser for the Foundation, Sheryl reminisced on the 30th anniversary of the Broadway production, watching Jennifer Holliday perform for the first time and the possibility of a "One Night Only" Dreamgirls Broadway reunion with original stars Sheryl Lee Ralph, Loretta Devine and Jennifer Holliday. Hear what she had to say below!