Living the dream

The tale of an African-American girl group whose members rocket from amateur-night upstarts to glamorous divas at the height of the Motown era, “Dreamgirls’’ is loosely based on the turbulent behind-the-scenes history of the Supremes. The Tony Award-winning 1981 production made Jennifer Holliday a Broadway legend, and the 2006 film version transformed Jennifer Hudson from an “American Idol’’ also-ran into an Oscar-winning Hollywood star. The trajectory of both women echoed the musical’s rags-to-riches story.

That same fizzy cocktail of fact and fantasy continues with the touring production of “Dreamgirls,’’ which arrives at the Colonial Theatre on Tuesday. This latest incarnation of the show began life last fall on the stage of Harlem’s historic Apollo Theatre, the setting for the musical’s opening and closing scenes. The three young actresses who star as the fictional Dreams - Moya Angela, Adrienne Warren, and former “American Idol’’ finalist Syesha Mercado - identify closely with their characters’ roller coaster ride to stardom. And they deeply connect with the disappointment, anxiety, and rejection the Dreams endure along the way.

“It’s all in the script, but it’s real life, too,’’ says Angela, who’s quickly earned raves for her earth-quaking performance as the nascent group’s full-figured, combustible leader, Effie White, the role that made Holliday and Hudson household names. “We can completely relate to it because it’s what we live every day, it’s the same dream we’re going after.’’

At a recent interview in Manhattan during the Apollo run, the three are like sisters, laughing and chatting giddily about backstage visits from Halle Berry and Mario Lopez. They seem genuinely supportive of one another.

Warren - outspoken, magnetic, and at 22, the obvious sparkplug of the group - plays the Dreams’ ebullient peacemaker, Lorrell Robinson. Warren underscores the echoes between the stage story and the actresses’ lives. “We show up at the Apollo for amateur night as our characters in the show, and we actually came to the Apollo for our callbacks in real life,’’ she says. “This is the start of our careers, too, so it’s very much a case of art imitating life.’’

The casting process was grueling, as the show’s creative team scouted the country from coast to coast and even did an open casting call at the Apollo, where 1,400 hopefuls showed up on a rainy morning. They eventually pared the list to three candidates for each role, then took another month to firm up their final selections.

“I heard ‘And I Am Telling You...’ more times than you could imagine,’’ says director Robert Longbottom of Effie’s heart-stopping, ferocious Act I finale. “You don’t automatically find people who have the stamina to do this material without rehearsing it and coming back later to show you what they’ve learned.’’

If it was a taxing process for the creative team, it was even more stressful for the finalists. “Each time we came in, there would be a whole different set of Effies, a whole different set of Lorrells, and whole different set of Deenas. It got to the point where we had no idea what they wanted,’’ says Angela with a laugh.

The 23-year-old Mercado, a soft-spoken beauty who plays the Dreams’ second banana-turned-superstar, Deena Jones, recalls an impromptu rendezvous with Angela and Warren in the ladies’ bathroom during one of the last callbacks, while they were all touching up their makeup.

“We were looking in the mirror, and I remember telling you both, ‘I have feeling that you guys are gonna get it!’’’ Mercado says. “And then we walked out of there looking like Charlie’s Angels, and my friend saw us and was like, ‘Wait a minute! I think you three are gonna be the Dreamgirls!’ ’’

Like her character, the 26-year-old Angela has overcome her share of adversity. She auditioned for Effie in the film version of “Dreamgirls’’ and was rejected. After several years touring in the ensemble of “The Lion King,’’ she moved back to her hometown of Indianapolis and worked as a restaurant hostess, enduring some financial distress. At one point, her phone was shut off, and she had to rely on her family to get it turned back on.

“I can really relate to trying to go for something and then being shot down, or being in love with someone and then being rejected. I had my heart broken recently. . . . I’ve fallen out with great friends that I love so much,’’ says Angela. “All of it hits so close to home, it’s kind of scary. Now here I am onstage having to remember and channel those experiences and push past them.’’

The warm, earthy Angela calls herself the mother of the group. She takes care of her costars, who say they appreciate her strength.

“She literally is Effie,’’ says Warren. “She’s had to learn the same lessons that Effie has to learn throughout this show. That’s what makes her such a great performer, and that’s what makes her such a strong Moya Angela.’’

Longbottom agrees, “She walks with that girl inside of her, but it’s very much her own take on the role. I think Moya brings great dignity to Effie, which I love.’’

Mercado, who was a second runner-up on “American Idol’’ (getting shut out of the David Archuleta/David Cook finale), is the famous name in the bunch, but there’s little trace of diva behavior in her manner.

“For a while I thought, ‘We’re going to have to create [a diva],’ because in the second act of the show, she very much needs to become that,’’ says Longbottom. “It’s the role with the biggest metamorphosis. It takes her a while to find her grace and learn how to walk like a star. And Syesha knew how to play that. You actually see Deena’s posture change as the show goes on.’’

Mercado, whose mother was a Motown backup singer, says she was able to plug into Deena’s lack of self-confidence and reluctance to embrace stardom - challenges she faced while standing in the “Idol’’ spotlight.

“I feel so close to Deena because I still have moments when I doubt myself and my abilities,’’ says Mercado. “And I think Deena kind of struggles with that in the beginning. She doesn’t think she’s the best singer, but she gradually starts to believe in herself. If you start believing in yourself more and more, then you really start to enjoy what you’re doing.’’

Angela and Mercado share the new song “Listen,’’ which composer Henry Krieger wrote for the film (sung by Beyoncé as a solo) and turned into a duet for this production.

Just so everyone knows, says Warren, “She did not get the role because she’s ‘American Idol Syesha Mercado.’ She worked her butt off for this part.’’

As for the character of Lorrell, Longbottom says, “She needs to disarm you and be the one who sees the world in a very pragmatic, down-to-earth way, unlike the two ladies on either side of her.’’

He says Warren, who performed with Jennifer Holliday in the 25th anniversary of “Dreamgirls’’ in Atlanta, has that down.

“To be that poised and that together at her age!’’ he marvels. “She has great emotional range, especially in the second act of the show. [Warren] hasn’t lived that life yet, by any means. And yet she is able to convince you that she has. That’s very rare.’’

Warren says the main thing she shares with her character is their passion for love. Speaking of Lorrell’s determination to win the heart of charismatic singer James “Thunder’’ Early, she says, “I love very hard, so I can kind of understand why she puts herself and all of her feelings aside to try and be with this one person, because I’ve been in those situations before.’’

When a photographer cajoles the trio into heading outside to shoot them amid the bright lights of Broadway, they gamely oblige, despite the cold. They huddle together for warmth and enthusiastically strike wild poses, with nary a complaint. On the sidewalk, tourists point their cameras and snap shots of the three stars-in-the-making.

Yet while they clearly have verve to spare, what Longbottom relishes most of all is their ability to capture emotional truths.

“Either you can put your finger on an emotion and conjure up the tears and the genuine feelings, or you have to manufacture them. When you’re really young, that’s hard to do,’’ says the director. “What I’m so thrilled with is that these young people, who are very much in the first act of their lives, are that focused and able to go to a place emotionally every night that is a little bit dangerous and, ultimately, very moving.’’