Sheryl Lee Ralph and Jennifer Hudson ‘Have Some Dreamgirls Fun’ & Team Up for Magical Performance

Por administrador Em 20 set, 2022

The Jennifer Hudson Show treated viewers with two Dreamgirls for the price of one! Fresh off her Emmys win, Sheryl Lee Ralph joined host Jennifer Hudson for an intimate discussion that turned into a mini-masterclass on being a Dreamgirl as the 65-year-old reflected on her turn in the original 1981 Broadway production.

Ralph, who originated the role of Deena and landed a Tony nomination, vividly recalled the day she auditioned for Dreamgirls. The Abbott Elementarystar said she remembered walking into the theater behind Loretta Devine — who was “already becoming Loretta Devine,” — and winding up in a room filled with powerhouse vocalists. “The building was literally levitating off of the concrete, that’s how wonderful they were,” Ralph recounted. “And then there was me.”

Ralph said that when it was her time to audition, she was instructed to sing something from church. “So, I sang ‘Ave Maria’ — they were very quiet,” she recalled, laughing. “I think they were thinking something more in the Baptist vein, and they did not know that I was a little Episcopalian girl.”

The actress said she waited around for several hours after her audition until, finally, the show’s creative team came by to announce their decision. Ralph said she was getting ready to leave after the first two names were called, but then she heard her name next.

“I’m really having a moment, because I wish I’d have been able to see that [version of the musical],” Hudson gushed. “I was born the year that came out.”

Hudson, of course, is more than just a fan of the musical, having cemented her star status with a scene-stealing role in the 2006 film adaptation, starring opposite Beyoncé, Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy. The talk show host earned a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her work, which later led to her winning a full EGOT.

The duo decided to have “some Dreamgirls fun” and donned pink feather boas, with Ralph insisting, “Girl, now this is not any cheap boa so you know I’m keeping it.”

“I can’t believe I get to do this,” Hudson said, following Ralph’s lead as she reiterated the proper way to step, sway, and sing along to Dreamgirls’ eponymous number.

They then bust a move to the piano music, with Hudson singing along to the “Dreamgirls” lyrics and saying, “Oh my god, I can’t believe I just got to have that moment with you. That was a dream, she’s a dream.”

Before scoring her Emmys win for her beloved role as Barbara Howard on Abbott Elementary, Ralph shared the connection between her role on the sitcom and her iconic run as a Dreamgirl to ET.

“You know, just like doing Abbott, when I was doing Dreamgirls, I knew we were doing something very special. I knew in my heart,” she previously told ET about playing the musical’s first-ever Deena and becoming an icon of musical theater. “I knew that little Black girls would be able to look up on the stage and have an image of beauty, class, sophistication, dreams, heartache, moving-on-up affirmation. I knew we were doing all of that.”

Ralph explained that she, along with Loretta Devine, Ramona Brooks and theater director Michael Bennett, created Dreamgirls through “improvisation” developed through workshops.

“A lot of the story is about what we, the originals, put into those roles and the suggestions we made around the development of the show,” she shared. “So I knew how special it would be if it would be a hit, if it could last. And the fact is that it has lasted. Forty years and it remains one of people’s favorite musicals of all time. I can get messages and emails and videos from all around the world with all different kinds of Dreamgirls in their own languages. It’s absolutely amazing to me. And I’m very thankful to have my own chapter in theater history.”

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