“Dreamgirls,” the celebrated musical about the struggles of a singing group as it rises to fame, will be revived on Broadway in the fall of 2026, a group of producers said Monday.
The show’s original production, which opened in 1981, ran for nearly four years and won six Tony Awards. It also led to what is often regarded as the best Tony Awards number of all time — Jennifer Holliday, playing a singer who gets ejected from the group, performing the wrenching “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.”
The musical, written by Henry Krieger and Tom Eyen, has been widely performed over the last four decades; it returned to Broadway for five months in 1987 and for a one-night benefit in 2001. “Dreamgirls” also found a broader audience via a 2006 film that starred Beyoncé and won Jennifer Hudson an Oscar.
The forthcoming Broadway revival will be directed and choreographed by Camille A. Brown, a five-time Tony nominee who has her own dance company. The producers are Sonia Friedman, a London-based powerhouse who produces many shows in the West End and on Broadway; Sue Wagner and John Johnson, longtime New York-based general managers who have become increasingly active as producers; and LaChanze, a Tony-winning actress who has pivoted to producing. Friedman in 2016 produced the British debut of “Dreamgirls” in London; LaChanze was in the ensemble of the 1987 Broadway revival.
The producers did not announce a cast, and said they would hold auditions for “talented women of all shapes and sizes” in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, Miami, London, Toronto, Mexico City, Amsterdam, Rome and Paris.
Michael Paulson is the theater reporter for The Times.
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