BAZ BAMIGBOYE: Amber, her Dream role and the op that saved her voice

Amber Riley has told how she went through the agony of an operation on her vocal cords just a fortnight before she was asked to audition for one of the biggest roles in musical theatre.

The 30-year-old actress, a leading light on TV’s Glee, starts rehearsing in October for the role of Effie White in the musical Dreamgirls, a Broadway show based loosely on the story of Motown stars the Supremes.

The production will begin previews at the Savoy Theatre on November 19 and open on December 14.

It’s a huge role. Amber’s character Effie sings two numbers that stop the show: And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going and I’m Changing (she sang them when she played the part of soul-belter Mercedes on Glee).

Amber Riley (left) observed that Jennifer Holliday (right), who originated the part of Effie on Broadway more than 30 years ago, must have had vocal cords made of ‘bionic steel’

Amber observed that Jennifer Holliday, who originated the part of Effie on Broadway more than 30 years ago, must have had vocal cords made of ‘bionic steel’.

‘I remember when I did And I’m Telling You... on Glee. It’s such a huge song that after I recorded it — several times — at the very last note my legs gave out. You use your entire body,’ she told me, as we sat in the garden of the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard.

Dreamgirls was not even on the horizon when she went into hospital last year.

‘I went through vocal surgery, which I needed after years and years of singing and recording and tiring myself out. They found two nodules on my cords,’ she says.

‘And, of course, a couple of weeks after that was done, they call and say: “Hey! They’d love you to come in and sing Effie White!!” ’

Amber had to tell them: ‘I can’t talk — or sing — right now. I asked if they could wait two weeks.’ They agreed.

After a fortnight, she auditioned in New York for Casey Nicholaw, the show’s director and choreographer. ‘My voice wasn’t all the way back, but I hoped they would see my passion, and they did. It was me and Casey and we cried,’ she says.

Then she flew to London to meet producer Sonia Friedman. And came down with bronchitis.

‘I just went in there and did it,’ she says, matter of factly. Friedman told me she was moved to tears by Amber’s performance.

Kit Harington, star of Game Of Thrones (left), will present an award at the Olivier Awards in London. Cyndi Lauper (right), who wrote the numbers for Kinky Boots, will be performing something special

The LA-based actress says she understands how Effie — a woman rejected by her lover and betrayed by the other girls in the Dreams —feels when she sings those songs. ‘I’m not sure if it’s life imitating art or art imitating life, but I understand something of what Effie was going through,’ she says.

‘I do know being a black woman who is plus-sized in Hollywood, you’re going to face more rejection than acceptance.

‘There are places for me [to work], but not that many. I’ve learned what rejection is, but everyone in this business has a story of rejection,’ she says, with a shrug.

There’s no self-pity. In fact, I had great fun hanging out with Amber for an hour, though I felt her decision to go for the kale and dried cranberry salad was brave, bordering on foolhardy.

In her defence, she is on a meat-free and dairy-free diet to protect those newly restored vocal cords and keep herself in tip-top shape for rehearsals.

‘It’s a lot of work to have an optimistic view on life,’ she says. ‘For me to stay happy, my mental health and my spiritual health are the most important things.’

She gets her singing talent from her mother, who encouraged her to explore all kinds of music — from gospel to opera, classical to rhythm and blues — and who has a great voice to boot.

‘My dad has a love for music, but can’t sing,’ she laughs.

She will meet the Dreamgirls’ creative team of costume designer Gregg Barnes, hair designer Josh Marquette and set designer Tim Hatley when she flies back to London for the Olivier Awards at the Royal Opera House on April 3.

She will present an award at the event — as will Kit Harington, star of Game Of Thrones and the forthcoming Doctor Faustus for the Jamie Lloyd Company, at the Duke of York’s theatre.

Manhattan society pianist Michael Feinberg will sing show tunes. And Cyndi Lauper, who wrote the numbers for Kinky Boots, will be performing something special.

‘No, it’s not from Kinky Boots,’ Julian Bird, the chief executive of the Society of London Theatre (who put on the Oliviers) teased.

Tickets for Dreamgirls go on sale at noon on Tuesday for those with advance priority booking via dreamgirlswestend.com (you can register until the last minute). General ticket sales start at noon on April 1.

Watch out for...

Morfydd Clark, who will join Aneurin Barnard, James Purefoy and Samantha Barks in the movie Interlude In Prague.

The film’s a back story, seething with love and lust, of how Mozart created his opera Don Giovanni. Clark will play Zuzanna, an opera singer who meets and ‘engages’ with the composer (Barnard). They certainly don’t spend a lot of time discussing musical notes!

Clark is one of our most exciting young actresses, who has done powerful work at the Royal Court, the Donmar and Sheffield theatres.

I saw her with Kate Beckinsale in Whit Stillman’s exquisite social comedy Love & Friendship, based on Jane Austen’s Lady Susan.

Morfydd Clark, left, will join Aneurin Barnard, James Purefoy and Samantha Barks in the movie Interlude In Prague. Cush Jumbo, right, will play the title role in George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, which will run at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre

Cush Jumbo, who will play the title role in George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, which will run at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre from December, with the Donmar’s artistic director Josie Rourke directing.

I last saw Anne Marie Duff play the role at the National a few years ago and she was magnificent. Jumbo has been on a great journey as an actress these past few years, flitting back and forth between London and New York.

She was Marc Antony in Phyllida Lloyd’s celebrated all-female Julius Caesar at the Donmar (and then St Anne’s in NY). And she took her one-woman show Josephine And I from the Bush to the Public Theater in NY, where she also appeared in The River, on Broadway. Lately she has been in hit TV show The Good Wife, and over the summer she will appear in Lloyd’s all-female version of The Taming Of The Shrew at Shakespeare In The Park (in Central Park), along with Janet McTeer, sensational in Rourke’s production of Les Liaison Dangereuses, again at the Donmar.

Ruthie Henshall, Deka Walmsley and Brodie Donougher, who were in Billy Elliot at a matinee last week at the London’s Victoria Palace.

The show, by Lee Hall and Elton John, and directed by Stephen Daldry, ends its run there on April 9. I’ve seen it around the world countless times, but I love seeing it in London. Last week in the audience were young ballet girls with their mums and young lads — future Billy Elliots — with mates.

I will be at the final performance of the best show on the London stage, and then I’ll scoot up to Sunderland for the touring version. When I saw Daldry recently, he hinted Billy could return — but not to the VP, which is being refurbished in readiness for Broadway smash hit Hamilton . . . if it’s finished in time.