Krieger seemed to have no problem slipping back into his own "Dreamgirls" groove. Condon recalls that when they were working on Effie's new song, "Love You I Do," Krieger called him one day and began to sing the song, "the exact song as we know it. I said, 'How do you just channel Effie after 25 years so effortlessly?' " Condon recalls. "He took a pause and said, 'There's something you have to understand, Bill, I am Effie.' "

When Condon and Mark met with Geffen to discuss casting, the first person they mentioned was Murphy, whom they wanted to play the volatile, James Brown-type exuberant singer James "Thunder" Early. Murphy had almost never played a dramatic part, but did have some experience singing — doing musical impersonations on "Saturday Night Live" and cutting a couple of records in the '80s.

Still, while most of the other actors had to audition for their roles, Condon, in a sense, auditioned Murphy at their first lunch. "The great thing that happened is that he said he'd seen 'Dreamgirls' three or four times. He knew the score. He referenced the songs. He said, 'I know it's in my range. I know I can sing it as well as Cleavant Derricks,' who played in the original. So hearing that from someone who's clearly not in the business of looking foolish, I trust that."

Also, unlike the other actors, Murphy didn't want to rehearse the dance steps because he "never wanted it to seem that this is a character who'd ever just do steps." And "coming from the world of stand-up and live performance, he wanted to keep it electric and new," Condon says. He says he mostly directed Murphy through carefully chosen haiku-like phrases like, " 'This number, 'Jimmy's Rap,' is a nervous breakdown on stage.' That was something he just went with."

The search for the right Effie
The rest of the cast was quickly rounded out with Knowles as Deena, the perfectly molded singer-product who yearns to be more; and Foxx, the Berry Gordy record mogul willing to jettison anyone and anything in his quest to the top.

Finding the right Effie was the conundrum, as the character provides the emotional arc of the movie. As Geffen told the Wall Street Journal, Condon and Mark at first suggested "American Idol" winner Fantasia Barrino, an idea Geffen nixed.

They looked at more than 750 possible Effies. Twelve were ultimately screen-tested in full costume and makeup. At her first audition, Hudson, an "American Idol" finalist, was tentative, says Condon.

"There's this great talent and there's some part of her who hasn't caught up to it yet. She wanted this part desperately, but she'd been through that kind of rejection before. She was very nervous and didn't come off as she should have in that first run-through."

Then there was another, more promising, audition in New York, but it wasn't until Condon brought her out to L.A., worked with her along with the movie's musical director, and had her lighted, made-up and costumed properly, that she really "killed." She sang Effie's anthem, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going."

Condon recalls seeing Jennifer Holliday sing the song on stage: "You thought she was going to sing herself to death." Hudson's interpretation though, he says, is completely different. "I think the crucial thing is to understand the medium and what works in a movie. That song has to rip your guts out because it has to feel so real. I never wanted it to be just Jennifer showing off. The thing we decided is: This is going to be Jennifer Hudson's Effie, not your grandmother's Effie."