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BY MAGGIE SCOTT

With shows like American Idol and web sites like YouTube, just about anyone can take a shot at musical fame and fortune.

The old-fashioned way that singers struggled to be heard is laid out in the sassy, shimmying adaptation of the smash 1981 Broadway musical, Dreamgirls. More properly, it should have been named, Dreamgirl, because there is one girl out of the three Dreamettes who hit the charts and bask in the spotlight in the ‘60s who embodies what it means and what it takes to follow a dream.

That girl is Effie White, as portrayed by American Idol contestant Jennifer Hudson. Academy Award is written all over this explosive performance that seems as natural and easy to Hudson as breathing.

There is no artifice in her performance as a girl determined to maintain her musical integrity and identity in the shadow of the more glamorous, but obviously less talented Deena Jones, as portrayed with oodles of sugar and spice by Beyonce Knowles.

Together with Lorrell Robinson (Anika Noni Rose), the girls go from naïve, plain janes (“We need a look”) on the talent show stages of Detroit to sleek sophisticates facing tough decisions in the recording studios, night clubs and performing halls about their careers and personal lives.

Temptations, insecurities, egos, ambitions, triumphs bind them together and tear them apart, as the romantic and professional maneuverings of their knavish manager (Jamie Foxx) come close to destroying the girls’ sense of themselves as a family.

Crossing the entertainment color line at a time of race riots, agonizing over the pressure to “cross over” in musical styles, dealing with jealousy and rejection, and hearing Hollywood’s siren call, the Dream Girls find their voices as strong, independent women.

Director/screenwriter Bill Condon doesn’t quite get all of his formidable ducks in a row to have a clear focus on the driving force of this epic story. The songs, four of which are new for this production, have a repetitive quality to them as they are delivered in performance or occasionally as in-your-face narrative.

Eddie Murphy as a fading soul singer is a close second to the dazzling Hudson, and together they steal quite a bit of limelight from Knowles, whose real-life celebrity has trouble making an impact on the big screen beyond her obvious drop-dead gorgeous looks.

A Paramount Pictures release, rated PG-13 for language, some sexuality and drug content.
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