The film begins in Detroit, Michigan in 1962, as an amateur African-American girl group known as The Dreamettes enter a talent competition at the Detroit Theater. Backstage, the three girls — full-figured lead singer Effie White, Deena Jones and Lorrell Robinson — meet Curtis Taylor, Jr., an ambitious Cadillac dealer with plans of breaking into the music business. Placing himself as their manager, Curtis arranges for the Dreamettes to tour as backup for a regional R&B star, James "Thunder" Early. The tour takes the company - also including Effie's songwriting brother C.C. and Jimmy's manager Marty - across the country on the
chitlin' circuit.
Hoping to help Jimmy and the girls cross over to mainstream audiences, Curtis starts his own record label, Rainbow Records ("The Sound of Tomorrow"), out of his car dealership's office, and makes C.C. his head songwriter. However, when Rainbow's first single fails after a white pop group releases a cover version, Curtis and his sidekick Wayne turn to
payola. By paying the right people, Curtis manages to get Jimmy and the Dreamettes to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and into a headlining gig at the Apollo Theater. Offstage, Effie is quickly becoming infatuated with the slick-talking Curtis, and Jimmy - a married man - begins an adulterous affair with Lorrell, who becomes equally as lovesick as Effie.
Marty grows weary of Curtis' plans to make Jimmy's image and sound more pop-friendly, to the point that he walks out on Jimmy, both his client and best friend. However, when Curtis finds that he cannot completely remake Jimmy Early into a pop act, he shifts his attention back to the Dreamettes. Feeling that Effie's voice is too "special" and her figure too large to attract white audiences, Curtis appoints the slimmer Deena as the lead singer of the Dreamettes. Though both Effie and Deena are disapproving of the change at first, they both learn to accept it.
With the aid of new songs and a new more glamorous image, Curtis and C.C. transform The Dreamettes into The Dreams, a top selling pop act whose popularity comes to rival that of The Beatles by 1965. However, the betrayed Effie does not take kindly to being reduced to Deena's backup, and begins acting out, becoming even more unruly when Curtis' affections also turn towards Deena. When Effie, feeling ill, does not turn up to rehearse for the Dreams' debut in
Las Vegas on
New Year's Eve 1966 , Curtis replaces Effie with his secretary, Michelle Morris. Effie, who has just learned she is pregnant, arrives at the
Caesar's Palace venue just as Michelle does, and after a nearly violent argument, finds herself without her group, without her brother, and without Curtis.
Eight years later, in 1973, Effie has become a depressed but caring
welfare mother, and her career in music is over. She and her nine-year-old daughter Magic live alone in the burnt-out inner city of
Detroit with only Effie's father Ronald to look in on them. On the other hand, Rainbow Records has moved to
Los Angeles, where it prospers with Deena Jones & the Dreams and many other pop acts. Wanting to expand his empire into film, Curtis plans to have an unwilling Deena, now his wife, star in a
blaxploitation musical version of
Cleopatra.
Though still part of the Rainbow roster, Jimmy Early's stardom has long faded, and Curtis has little interest in revitalizing his career. Unsatisfied with both his wife Melba and his long-term mistress Lorrell, Jimmy turns to drugs for affection. Meanwhile, C.C. continues to reach out to Effie, who stubbornly ignores the letters and money he sends. Eventually, Effie swallows her pride and, with Marty as her manager, returns to singing and secures gigs at a small Detroit club.
In 1974, Rainbow Records hosts a tenth anniversary TV special. Midway through his set, Jimmy decides that he cannot sing any more "sad songs", so he breaks down onstage and launches into a wild
James Brown-type
funk number. The audience seems to love it, but the act goes too far when Jimmy drops his pants on live television. Curtis consequently terminates Jimmy's contract, and Lorrell reluctantly ends the eight-year affair.
Shortly after the special, Deena meets with a film producer and writer in an attempt to get a role in a grittier film than Curtis' glossy
Cleopatra update, and after some negotiations they agree to give her the film role. Back at Rainbow Records, C.C. walks out on Curtis and the label after learning that Curtis has taken C.C.'s latest composition and turned it into a rhythm-heavy dance track (identifiable as early
disco). His resignation is interrupted, however, by the news that Jimmy Early has been found dead at an L.A. hotel from a
heroin overdose.
C.C. leaves L.A. and Michelle, now his girlfriend, to return to Detroit and find Effie. The two siblings reconcile and work together to produce Effie's comeback single, "
One Night Only". Just as the record begins gaining radio play in Detroit, however, Curtis strikes. Using
payola, he forces radio DJs to play a disco cover of "One Night Only" by Deena Jones & the Dreams instead of Effie's original, and the Dreams' version becomes a major hit in early 1975.
Curtis has also learned of Deena's covert meetings with other film producers and asserts his control over his wife. Rebuffed, Deena sneaks into Curtis' office, where she discovers evidence of Curtis'
payola schemes and a copy of Effie's version of "One Night Only". She calls Effie and C.C., who arrive at the Rainbow offices with Marty and a lawyer. As Deena and Effie reconcile, Curtis works out a deal with the lawyer to avoid being reported to the
FBI for payola: Rainbow Records will fund a new label for C.C., which will allow Effie's record national distribution. Curtis then confronts Deena, only to find that Effie's victory has inspired Deena to leave him and make it on her own.
As a result, Deena Jones & the Dreams give a farewell performance at the Detroit Theater. At the conclusion of the concert, Effie joins Deena, Lorrell, and Michelle onstage and the reunited Dreams give one final performance of their signature song, "Dreamgirls", with Effie singing lead. As the concert ends, Curtis notices Magic in the front row and seemingly realizes that he is the girl's father.
Cast
- Jamie Foxx as Curtis Taylor, Jr. Based upon Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr.,[4] Curtis is a slick Cadillac dealer-turned-record executive who founds the Rainbow Records label and shows ruthless ambition in his quest to make his black artists household names with white audiences. At first, he is dating Effie and later becomes attracted to Deena and breaks up with Effie and kicks her out of the group. He eventually marries Deena also. Father to Magic.
- Beyoncé Knowles as Deena Jones. Based upon Motown star Diana Ross,[5] Deena is loving toward her Dreamgirl "sisters" and very beautiful, but is a sheltered girl who allows her husband Curtis to transform her into the Dreams' lead singer and Rainbow's biggest star all because of her looks and voice and it causes her mother to realize that Curtis is using her as a product. Knowles was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance.
- Eddie Murphy as James "Thunder" Early. "Jimmy" Early, inspired by R&B/soul singers such as David Ruffin, Jackie Wilson, and Marvin Gaye,[4] is a raucous performer on the Rainbow label whom Curtis attempts to repackage as a pop-friendly balladeer. Murphy won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the film.
- Jennifer Hudson as Effie White. Inspired by Supremes member Florence Ballard[5] and soul singers Etta James and Aretha Franklin,[4] the plus-sized Effie is a talented yet temperamental singer who suffers after Curtis, the man she loves, replaces her as lead singer of the Dreams with Deena and later drops her altogether. Mother of Magic.Hudson won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, among many other awards, for her portrayal of Effie.
- Anika Noni Rose as Lorrell Robinson. Lorrell, inspired by Supremes member Mary Wilson,[6] is a good-natured background singer with the Dreams who falls deeply in love with the married Jimmy Early and becomes his mistress. She is slightly naive and her soul singer sisters are protective of her.
- Danny Glover as Marty Madison. Jimmy's original manager before Curtis steps into the picture, Marty serves as both counsel and confidant to Jimmy, and later to Effie as well.
- Keith Robinson as C.C. White. Inspired by Motown vice president, artist, and songwriter Smokey Robinson,[7] Effie's soft-spoken younger brother C.C. (Clarence Conrad) serves as the main songwriter for first the Dreamettes and later the entire Rainbow roster. Uncle to Magic.
- Sharon Leal as Michelle Morris. Michelle, based upon Supremes member Cindy Birdsong,[8] replaces Effie in the Dreams and becomes C.C.'s love interest.
- Hinton Battle as Wayne. Wayne is a salesman at Curtis' Cadillac dealership who becomes Rainbow's first record producer and Curtis' henchman.
Dreamgirls also features supporting performances from Mariah I. Wilson as Magic, Effie's daughter;
Yvette Cason as May Jones, Deena's mother;
Ken Page as club owner Max Washington; and Alexander Folk as Ronald White, Effie and C.C.'s father. Cameo appearances in the film are made by
John Lithgow and
John Krasinski as a film producer and his screenwriter,
Jaleel White as a talent booker at the Detroit Theater,
Dawnn Lewis as Melba Early, Jimmy's wife, and
Loretta Devine, who originated the role of Lorrell on Broadway, as a jazz singer in Max Washington's club who sings "I Miss You Old Friend".
Laura Bell Bundy, a
Broadway veteran featured in such musicals as
Legally Blonde and
Hairspray, plays one of the sweethearts featured in the "Cadillac Car" reprise.
Throughout the film, a number of other musical acts depicted as allusions to or analogues of real-life R&B performers appear, among them Little Albert & the Tru-Tones (
Little Anthony & The Imperials), Tiny Joe Dixon (
B. B. King), The Family Funk (
Sly & the Family Stone), and The Campbell Connection (
The Jackson 5).
