For Baltimore native Cynthia Waddell, starring in the national touring production of "Dreamgirls" is like a dream come true.
"The message for me in this particular show is so synonymous with my life: that dreams really do come true," Waddell said over the phone from Albany, N.Y., where "Dreamgirls" played several one-night engagements. The show arrives at the Lyric Opera House today for a six-night run.
"Dreamgirls' " six-month tour has included about two weeks of one-nighters, most occurring earlier this month -- during the worst weather of the season. However, inclement weather didn't stop the show, which travels on such occasions in three buses and a truck.
"We go on -- rain, hail or snow. We're like the postal service," says Waddell, 32.
The grueling schedule did temporarily halt Waddell, however. She came down with the flu in Ohio, causing her to miss a performance there, two in upstate New York and one in Vermont. "One-nighters are detrimental to your health," she says, the residue of the flu still perceptible in her voice.
Missing performances is a rarity for this trouper. She got her first taste of touring in the early 1980s, when she was a soloist with the Morgan State University Choir, which traveled to Bermuda as well as throughout the South.
"Touring is probably second nature to me because of the Morgan State Choir. [Choir director] Dr. Nathan Carter prepared us very well for that," she says.
Dr. Carter has fond memories not only of Waddell's contribution to the choir, but also of her contribution to the bus trips. "She always had an ebullient attitude and spirit. If you asked her to sing something, it wouldn't just be the voice that would captivate you, it would be her personality in rendering it," he says.
"If you were on a bus ride, you knew she was there because she would be telling jokes. She almost could have been a comedian."
"Dreamgirls," which has music by Henry Krieger and a book and lyrics by Tom Eyen, is about a Supremes-like girl group in the heyday of Motown. Waddell plays Effie, a temperamental performer who refuses to "fit in."
As Dr. Carter suggests, and Waddell's parents confirm, Cynthia's personality is nothing like the character she plays. "She is a very easygoing person. She's the type of person I don't think anyone's ever met her that didn't like her," says her father, M. Frederick Waddell, a retired U.S. Coast Guard foreman.
