What happens to artistic dreams deferred by audiences’ fear of contagion and theater companies’ fear of economic ruin?

Well, dreams deferred too long, as Langston Hughes warned us, can fester and even explode. Enough said there, given our perilous times. The cheerful news is that Norfolk State University and the Virginia Stage Company have buddied up to do a show big enough (36 musical numbers! A square mile of sequins!) and flashy enough (LED light towers! A turntable stage!) to elevate the pandemic theater scene. They have partnered before, of course, with impressive results, including “The Parchman Hour,” “The Bluest Eye” and, especially, their breakthrough “The Wiz.”

“Dreamgirls,” at the Wells Theatre, is impressive, though, like any dream it has a little tossing and turning.

This much-beloved musical by Michael Bennett ( “A Chorus Line”), Tom Eyen and Henry Krieger premiered at Broadway’s Imperial Theatre in 1981. “Dreamgirls” became still better known as a 2006 film adaptation starring Beyoncé as Deena Jones (the Diana Ross figure) and Jennifer Hudson as Effie White (modeled, critics have guessed, on Etta James or the Supremes’ Florence Ballard). Jamie Foxx played Curtis (a Berry Gordy Jr.-like entrepreneur/hustler) and Eddie Murphy played Jimmy, a character that might have been born if James Brown could have procreated with Little Richard.

Bennett and Eyen’s story of a girl group’s rise from their lowly New York neighborhood to classy Las Vegas heights has, as the VSC playbill states, always been associated with the rise of Gordy’s Motown and the Supremes. Eyen, whose lyrics are simple enough to make him the “anti-Sondheim,” said he was really thinking about “the Shirelles, the Chiffons, Martha and the Vandellas.”

Jennifer Holliday premiered the role of Effie on Broadway, earning a Tony. Hudson then played the role and carried home an Oscar. So imagine the pressure on Amorise White, the NSU company member making her theatrical (though not her singing) debut in the role. Effie is the original lead singer of the Dreamettes (later the Dreams). Both bossy and whiny — a classic “angry Black woman” stereotype — Effie is undisputed ruler over Jones (Katelan Corprew) and Lorrell Robinson (ShaaNi Dent) when we first meet them at an Apollo Theater talent show.

There they meet Curtis Taylor Jr., the hustler who fancies himself managerial material. Played by Khan’el, an actor familiar to local audiences for his work in “Choir Boy,” “The Wiz,” “Parchman Hour” and others, Taylor eyes pretty Jones but takes up instead with the influential Effie. Our first clue to Taylor’s character is that he fixes the talent show to get the reluctant Dreamettes to go on the road as James “Thunder” Early’s backup singers.

Early is played by the irresistibly outrageous Michael Giamille. Gifted with hips on a swivel, Early (who always refers to himself in the third person) takes up with Robinson, young but about to learn about married men. (When we check on them seven years later, she is still waiting for him to leave his wife.) Giamille’s comic turn packs a welcome wallop. Themes reflecting the changing social times are left for Taylor, his cronies and the “Dreamgirls” (infantilized but wising up very fast). Taylor and Effie’s songwriting brother C.C. (Adam Moskowitz) win our sympathy when white record producers steal their hit song “Cadillac Car” and have it recorded in a laughable version by Pat Boone. (The same fact-based practice is illustrated in August Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”) But the cheated outcheat the cheaters (“Stepping to the Bad Side”). Taylor learns to exceed white record makers’ payola payments to DJs. The problem is that he will turn these same tactics against Effie.

As most show-goers already know, Taylor cheats in love, as well, choosing Jones’ beauty and her blander pop-and-disco-ready voice over Effie’s earthiness and soul. Taylor makes Jones the lead Dreamette. Then, when Effie’s jealousy and bad behavior become intolerable, he forces her out of the group. White’s showstopping response, “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going,” is what’s known in the biz as a “power ballad.” (One overheated Canadian critic, David Metzer, even termed it an “ecstatic” ballad.) Metzer’s other examples include Céline Dion’s titanic hit “My Heart Will Go On” and Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” (written by Dolly Parton). Such ballads are characterized by supercharged emotions that build to an impossible peak.

Were audiences at the Wells expecting such a thing? Absolutely. A collective intake of breath preceded the song as audience members steeled themselves. The first half of the song is sung directly to Taylor. Khan’el lends his character a hint of remorse for the way he’s treated Effie but then strides offstage, leaving her convulsing with grief and denial. Neophyte Amorise White delivers the requisite chills and adrenaline the song demands, thereby ensuring the show’s success.

In the second act, Effie gradually pulls herself together, for her child’s sake, and becomes a working singer again. (The typically direct song title is “I Am Changing.”) She reconciles with her brother and claws her way to a No. 1 hit when she beats out Taylor for the rights to “One Night Only.” Deena also tires of Taylor’s bullying, leaving him to pursue her own acting career. The self-actualization of Black women is an important theme in the musical, as is the battle for souls reflected in the clash of musical genres: R&B versus soul versus pop versus (uh-oh) disco.

It’s a busy show, full of great opportunities for young actors — a couple of whom struggle a bit with the difficult sung dialogue and the unrelenting swirl of scenes. But several young actors earn their equity cards, a rare accomplishment. As all good backstage musicals assert, dreams can come true. You can believe the Dreamgirls’ promise, “Boys (and girls), we’ll make you happy.” They will. Don’t believe their lyric “Dreamgirls will never leave you.” That’s just male wish fulfillment fantasy talking; besides, barring a holdover, the Dreamgirls depart at show’s end on May 1.

Page Laws is dean emerita of the Nusbaum Honors College at Norfolk State University. prlaws@aya.yale.edu

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If you go

When: Through May 1

Where: Wells Theatre, 108 E. Tazewell St., Norfolk

Tickets: Start at $30

Details: vastage.org