Full Disclosure: I used to listen to a lot of musical theatre. I mean, a lot.
Rent, The Life, Steel Pier, post-coital viewings of the stage production of
Passion, you name it.
Nowadays, I'm pretty butch as gay guys go. My musical tastes are folk and rock, I like canyoneering and I think most musical theatre is crappity crap, a pastiche of a cliche.
I explain this because today, the first press kit for
Dreamgirls came into my office.
And I'm about to say some pretty fucking gay things. So, if you like your Japhy all post-post-gay (that's how I identify, for the record), you may want to come back another time.
Based on the musical, starring Beyonce, Jammie Foxx, Eddie Murphy and Danny Glover, I've seen the teaser trailer in theatres twice now: A series of blinding white disco lights and coral blue shadows of legs and microphones and above it all, Beyonce is singing about how "you're gonna love me" at the top of her voice as the art-deco title logo swoops into view and the shadows of three gorgeous black divas are backlit by klieg lights.
Basically, this is
Star Wars: Episode I for gay boys and Dreamworks knows it. This movie isn't out until December and it's kind of great that they fashioned the same kind of teaser for Dreamgirls that Sony might do for
Spiderman 3. I see tons of trailers. This one made me giddy. This one made me excited: "Ohmygod, Beyonce's voice is flawless, did you see the sequins? Eddie Murphy? This will totally be his Travolta/Willis 2nd act rebirth! Oh my god her voice is flawless! Did you see the heels? You saw the heels, right? Ohmygod."
You can tell this movie is going to be something special. Did I mention Bill Condon is directing? Yeah, the
Kinsey guy.
Interesting sidenote: The publicity site has a section for amateur productions of Dreamgirls. Apparantley, Dreamworks has taken over the amateur rights management for theatrical productions of Dreamgirls. What's really interesting is that instead of Dreamworks looking to keep productions out of schools and community theatres, it seems like they're encouraging it, so come this Thanksgiving, all across America, we're gonna see sixteen year-old wannabe white girl divas dresses up in slinky sequin dresses belting their hearts out across the American small stage. Now, I wonder if they'd license an all drag queen version...
