Jennifer Holliday Admits She Didn’t Think Her Voice Was Anything Special Until Reading Initial “Dreamgirls ”Review (Exclusive)
Jennifer Holliday Admits She Didn’t Think Her Voice Was Anything Special Until Reading Initial “Dreamgirls ”Review (Exclusive)
Angela AndaloroSun, July 26, 2026 at 6:59 PM UTC
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Jennifer Holliday in ‘Dreamgirls’ (left), Ethel Merman in pre-production performance of ‘Gypsy’Credit: Martha Swope/New York Public Library; FPG/Getty -
Jennifer Holliday originated the role of Effie White in Dreamgirls on Broadway in 1981
The theater classic was just Holliday’s second stage production, with the actress telling PEOPLE about navigating that major moment in her early 20s
The actress, 65, has been named the recipient of the 2026 Music Honoree award from the Boston Arts Academy Foundation (BAAF)
Jennifer Holliday remembers all the feelings that came with putting together Dreamgirls and then seeing its success.
The entertainer, 65, recently caught up with PEOPLE as she prepares to be honored as the recipient of the 2026 Music Honoree award from the Boston Arts Academy Foundation (BAAF) at an event on October 22.
Looking back at her career, Holliday explains that the Broadway production was workshopped in Boston, where she “was able to develop more with the character of Effie [White], because in the first part of the workshop, Effie wasn’t even in the second act.”
“And then when we first got to Boston, Effie’s big song, ‘And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going,’ was in the middle of the first act,” she reflects.
“But the people in Boston would not stop applauding. So they were like, ‘Okay, we’re going to have to change this because we have to go on with the rest of the show,’ ” she tells PEOPLE.
Jennifer Holliday singing in 2011Credit: Moses Robinson/WireImage
In the end, the show-stopping number was moved to the end of the first act, giving audience members plenty of time to applaud while going into intermission.
“So Boston, I have a real love affair with them because it was people that I did not know. I had not sung for a primarily white audience and didn’t know what they would think about me,” Holliday shares. “For them to receive me and not find my voice, my instrument, too much for them or too soulful or too loud or anything like that, that really just gave me a confidence and made me feel very loved for what I did.”
Holliday admits it was “a bit frightening” handling the success that came her way, noting, “I had just turned 21, and I had the responsibility of being a major Broadway star and carrying a show.”
“And it wasn’t until I read Frank Rich’s review of me in the New York Times that he was like, ‘Not since Ethel Merman in Gypsy...’ I was like, ‘Who is he talking about?’” she recalls. “Because for me, being from Houston, Texas, singing in the choir, almost every girl in the choir could sing like me, I felt.”
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Rich’s review read, “If Miss Holliday’s Act I solo is one of the most powerful theatrical coups to be found in a Broadway musical since Ethel Merman sang ‘Everything’s Coming Up Roses’ at the end of Act I of Gypsy, so Dreamgirls‘ is the same kind of breakthrough for musical stagecraft that Gypsy was.”
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The glowing review left Holliday stunned.
“It took me a minute to understand what was a bit scary at first, and then I just accepted the responsibility,” she says.
Jennifer Holliday in August 2025Credit: Carol Lee Rose/Getty
Holliday’s powerhouse performance as Effie won her a Tony in 1982 for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. She also won Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 1983 Grammys for her rendition of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.”
After the show’s immediate success, Holliday stayed with the production for nearly three years, wrapping up her tenure around the end of 1984.
“Broadway’s very hard with the eight shows a week and the discipline that you have, and so sometimes it was very lonely for a young lady who had just become a young lady not to have an outside life outside of Broadway with eight shows a week, only Monday off. It made it a lot,” she shares.
The BAAF’s annual HONORS celebration raises critical support for Boston Arts Academy, the city’s only public high school for the visual and performing arts. This year’s “Come Dream With Us: A Masquerade Ball” event will honor visionary leaders across music, dance, fashion, film, visual arts, civic leadership and sports and entertainment.
Holliday shares that she’s excited to celebrate this honor amid “the third act of my life and my career.”
“One of the greatest things is that I’ve been rediscovered, not only by the new fans, but just some of my old fans who would just say, ‘Where have you been? What are you doing?’ ” she shares.
Laughing, she adds, “So it’s pretty nice to be Jennifer Holliday right now. At 65, I’m starting a whole new venture and I’m far more open and saying yes to a lot of things that I used to say no to. And I’m enjoying it this time around.”
The Boston Arts Academy Foundation’s 2026 BAAF HONORS: “Come Dream With Us: A Masquerade Ball” will take place on Thursday, October 22, 2026, at MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston. Tickets must be purchased in advance by visiting baahonors.org.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
