Once upon a time, it was romance that roused the audiences in musicals. In Dreamgirls it is rage. The biggest whoops from the most vocal audience in London come when one singer leaves her rat husband, another walks away from the man who won’t leave his wife and the woman who has just been dumped yells at her lover that she’s not going.
Casey Nicholaw’s production of Tom Eyen and Henry Krieger’s show arrives in London 10 years after the movie, which starred Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé. With strong similarities to the story of Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and the Supremes, it whips through a chunk of musical history – from R&B to disco – and a slice of racial prejudice. With glitz. Fishtail frocks, glittering curtains. Adam J Bernard snake-hipping away and dropping his trousers. Liisi LaFontaine in strong voice. It looks set to roar for years.
Amber Riley – of Glee – is the knockout that she needs to be. Not least in I Am Changing, a number that requires a big punch, not simply a belting out. And that shows what it preaches.
Riley begins to croon, all got up in sensible brown. As she proclaims that she has recovered her singing soul, the mummy rig disappears and she shimmers head to toe in blue glitter. Melody therapy.
• At the Savoy theatre, London, booking until 21 October
