"Dreamgirls" is waiting

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The reason that Dreamgirls, which has been doing pretty great business since opening semi-wide last Monday (i.e., Christmas Day), isn't playing in more than 852 theatres is...? My understanding is that there's some degree of concern that the want-to-see isn't strong enough in the more rural areas of the country, so DreamWorks marketers are waiting for the Oscar nomination announcements on 1.23.07 -- three and a half weeks away -- to open it wider.

What about all the musical-loving women out there who want to see it now? There must be tens of thousands cooling their heels as we speak.

I know that as far as musical sizzle goes, Dreamgirls has that in spades. It didn't make me suffer like Chicago did, and I've been thinking for the last couple of weeks that I'd really like to see it again just to see how it plays. I know my kids (aged 18 and 17) don't give a hoot about it. I know it didn't come up in conversation with friends in Connecticut last weekend, or with my sister or my brother or my parents. I still believe the Dreamgirls support is basically urban/female/black/gay...but it would be interesting to be proved wrong.

"I haven't even seen the damn film yet," says N.Y. journalist Lewis Beale, "but I'm thinking Dreamgirls will be a monster because it will attract (1) the Beyonce crowd, and she's just huge, (2) zillions of boomers, 'cause it's about Motown, the music they grew up with, (3) boomer kids who grooved on their folks' Motown records, and now (4) the James Brown necrophilia crowd.

"I got shut out of an incredibly mixed-race Dreamgirls screening in Clifton, N.J. on Monday. And my sister-in-law tells me they saw it with a sold-out, almost all-white crowd in Durham, N.C."

Wells to Beale: Dreamgirls may be "about" Motown history, but the music isn't very Motown-y at all....not to my ears. Important point, this.