Dreamgirls At Liverpool Empire Review

Reviewed by Lucy Gwilliam

I absolutely love a musical and spent the majority of my childhood watching musicals such as Easter Parade and Meet Me in St. Louis at the weekend. As I have grown, my love for musicals has never faded but grown into a passion for musicals live on stage. 

When I heard that Dreamgirls was showing on stage at the Liverpool Empire, I was so excited. Dreamgirls is one of my all time favourite films and the soundtrack for the movie is just amazing and features some of my favourite all time songs such as “Listen” and “And I am telling you”. 

Liverpool Empire Theatre is such a stunning building which takes your breath away with its beautiful decor. It really allows you to feel submerged in the moment ready to watch a fantastic show. 

The story of Dreamgirls follows the rise to stardom of the female group the Dreamettes, later the Dreams. It shows their relationship with each other and their manipulation by their manager Curtis Taylor Jr. The Dreams consist of Effie White, Deena Jones and Lorrell Robinson. Together they are an absolute powerhouse with Effie (Nicole Raquel Dennis) as their lead. Her voice is out of this world and she absolutely belts out those high notes. It is set in the 1960s and the story follows them on their journey from backing singers to a group in their own right and sees Curtis remove Effie from the lead to be replaced by Deena as lead. This causes Effie to be furious and upset by the whole situation. This in turn leads to her being replaced in the band and asked to leave. She ends the first half by belting out “And I am telling you”. I literally got goosebumps when she started to sing, I have honestly never seen a performance as spellbinding and phenomenal as the one I watched from Nicole Raquel Dennis singing one of my favourite songs last night. She received a standing ovation from the audience as we entered the interval. 

The second half of the show just got even better, the songs throughout were mesmerising for the whole audience and everyone seemed to be thoroughly enthralled. The story took a turn and showed Curtis’ demise and the rest of the cast realising he was a snake. 

The show was just magical and the whole thing was perfect from start to finish. With an all singing/dancing cast and stunning costumes to the best vocals I have heard in a musical, I think this is my new favourite stage musical. I would rate the show 5/5 and have already raved and recommended the show to my friend who had booked tickets to see it at weekend! We had such an amazing night and enjoyed every moment. 

Dreamgirls is showing from 3rd Jan to 7th Jan 2023 and tickets start at £13 ranging up to £80. The show last for 2 hours 40 minutes- including interval. 

Tickets can be purchased from https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/dreamgirls/liverpool-empire/