Nurturing The Dream: Dreamgirls by Sterling Quality Review

Dreamgirls is a rather easy production to like. The glitz, spotlights, toe-tapping energy and soul make it an unforgettable experience both on and off the stage. The initial 1981 production by Michael Bennett ran on Broadway for 5 consecutive years, from December 1981 through to August 1985, 1521 performances earning it 13 Tony Awards nominations and 6 wins. The 2006 movie adaptation, starring Beyoncé Knowles and Jennifer Hudson, the latter having been awarded an Oscar for her performance, and the film winning a Golden Globe for Best Picture-Musical or Drama in 2007.

Sterling Quality’s recent production of Dreamgirls, which showed at the Braeburn Theatre from 26^th to 28^th June, captures the energy and excitement of show business and the spellbinding effect of being in the presence of raw talent; in the presence of greatness. This feeling, often exhilarating, is combined with worry and concern in the Kenyan setting, given the overall skepticism facing careers in the arts and the unrealized talent that is not given a chance to blossom into something, perhaps explosive.

A story about what it takes to be a star, Dreamgirls tells the story of Effie White (Patience Masai) and her friends Deena Jones (Ruth Kagiri) and Lorrel Robinson (Sefu Sanni) and their path to fame paved with affairs, jealousy, broken hearts and friendships and eventually self discovery. Upon their losing an Amateur Talent Show they meet Curtis Taylor Jr, a used car salesman who becomes their manager and arranges for their performance as Background Vocalists for James ‘Thunder’ Early, an R&B singer. The Dreamettes eventually get their own act, edging Effie White out of her lead position and replacing her with Deena Jones who was expected to be more of a hit to the white audiences. The resulting tension of this replacement as well as Curtis Taylor Jr. leaving Effie for Deena creates a permanent rift between them and leads to an unhappy marriage for Deena who wants to be an actress but Curtis will not allow it.

The local production put up a compelling show of talent with Robert Orwa playing Jimmy Early and dazzling the audience with his amazing vocals. The performances by Ruth Kagiri and Patience Masai were equally as breathtaking leaving one to ponder just how wondrous their performance would be if this was indeed their day job. If they were adequately trained, I can imagine just how fast an actual scout could whip them away, never again to perform on a Kenyan stage but rather to return on occasional courtesy visits to their home country, their talent immeasurably valued by another.

The less than commendable aspects of the show would be the overall set design, highly compromised by the size of the Braeburn stage and the lack of an orchestra pit, leading to the band being positioned on an already small stage. The LED panels, though adding to the glamour of the performance, did nothing to contextualize the performance and were possible wrongly scaled to give the right atmosphere for the play. The costumes, remarkably close to those worn in the film, were mediocre at best and perhaps ill-fitting, not exploring the possibilities of rethinking and redesigning to give the particular production its own distinguishable look and feel and promoting another aspect of Kenyan creativity.

All in all, the play made me seriously consider the state of our creative industries and the numerous young and talented Kenyans being cheated out of the possibility of fulfilling their true purpose. There is an impasse in the growth of these industries seemingly because investors want to see numbers before they finance any of the arts, yet numbers can only pick up when the quality of the output is high-quality which would require adequate financing. All this is very justifiable, given the high risk involved in such investments but the Kenyan government should at the very least, while promoting self-employment and entrepreneurship channel some funds towards the arts. After all, UNCTAD studies have shown that even in times of recession, creative industries continue to grow.

I would rate this production an overall success; an ode to finding your own voice and staying true to it. It shows commendable progress in theatre productions and hopefully as our arts industry grows and matures, it will enable a new generation of audiences to make the arts a permanent part of their lives and prepare them for unimagined new careers.