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And I'm Telling You, I Am Going -- Even for $25

For the next ten days, in New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco, the three cities lucky enough to have "Exclusive Roadshow Engagements" of Dreamgirls, audiences will be treated to the sort of white-glove treatment that’s been missing from movie theaters for decades.

"Roadshow Engagement" means fewer shows, a souvenir program and ushers showing you to a specific seat in a specific row, the way they would for "live" theater. There'll even be an intermission so no one will have to miss a song to go grab popcorn in the lobby. All of this comes at a price -- $25, for the bragging rights to talk about a show only a few thousand other people will have seen before the movie opens wide on December 25.

General admission engagements will follow for a crowd-pleaser of a showbiz saga that’s already being touted as a leading awards contender. Dreamgirls is about a group not unlike the Supremes, and a spectacular singer who gets bounced when the trio starts to hit the big time. The cast features Eddie Murphy, Jamie Foxx, Danny Glover and Beyonce as a singer modeled on Diana Ross. But the showstopper is belter Jennifer Hudson, who's been garnering raucous cheers at preview performances when she sings, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going." Appropriately enough, Hudson was herself bounced from TV’s American Idol. She'll be going wherever she wants from here on out.

Bob Mondello reviews films forAll Things Considered. Scroll down for a special "Five for Friday" bonus: five more mini-reviews from Mondello.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Bob Mondello, who jokes that he was a jinx at the beginning of his critical career — hired to write for every small paper that ever folded in Washington, just as it was about to collapse — saw that jinx broken in 1984 when he came to NPR.