The two women who portrayed Dreamgirls character Effie White in the film and on stage carried on that uphill battle long after the curtains closed and the credits rolled.
On the latest episode of the Jennifer Hudson Show, the superstar singer/actress welcomed special guest Amber Riley for a heartfelt reprisal of their respective roles as Effie in the Dreamgirls 2006 film and 2016 West End debut.
“I’m sure that you became very close to that character like I became very close with that character and really knew her,” Riley said. “Having her story be this gift and not being able to be out in the front. I felt that, and so I feel like doing things like Masked Singer, doing things like Dancing with the Stars, I get to be triumphant for those stories. I get to be the winner for those stories. It’s just full circle for me.”
During a duet of the signature song, “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” each artist demonstrated their distinct soulful voices during a duet of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” during the Jennifer Hudson Show.
Allowing the audience to guess whether she or Riley’s vocals rang through the studio first, the show’s host made a game of it by standing behind one of the many frosted Christmas trees on stage.
“Honestly, you know what, if I’m going to be compared to somebody – if you’re going to hear me sing and put Jennifer Hudson next to it, that’s so validating and so flattering,” Riley said earlier in the episode. “It made me feel like I was beaming underneath that mask.”
In related TV news, Riley was recently crowned the winner of Season 8 of The Masked Singer competition, during which time, judge Ken Jeong was convinced the woman behind the Masked Harp character was actually Hudson.
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Author: Al Denté
Photo: S Pakhrin from DC, USA