You would never think that it would take a slightly middle-aged white guy from England to take Milwaukee on a riotous tour of the black soul music that so enwrapped the lives of so many people, black and white.

But give Mark Clements, artistic director at the Milwaukee Rep, a big showy play, and he'll swing hard at the softball and hit it out of the park.

That’s the case with "Dreamgirls," the Tony Award winner that opened the Rep’s Quadracci Powerhouse season Saturday night. To call this a big show is like saying a perfectly done ribeye is a fair piece of meat. Understatement.

"Dream girls" is the story of a narrow slice of black music. Going to see this show, it’s important that you both know what it is and what it isn’t.

Soul music was born out of the blues played in honky tonks and the gospel music that came from the church.

The history of the urban blues scene is full of names like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and especially Willie Dixon who wrote many of the great blues songs of the time. By the early 1950s, the genre was gaining popularity and millions of white kids sampled it as they searched for unique music to dance to.

We then got soul music, the music and songs based on the black American experience. Popular, even with millions of white kids who had a new kind of music to dance to. Jackie Wilson, Solomon Burke, Otis Redding and Ray Charles were the stars of the sometimes brutally frank soul music.

None of this evolution is part of "Dreamgirls." Instead, what we have is a story of the next step, the creation of the smooth groups like the Miracles, Temptations, the Ronettes and, most of all, the Supremes.

Three young girls from Chicago – Effie White, Deena Jones and Lorrell Robinson – show up for a talent show at the famed Apollo Theatre. They don’t win, but they catch the eye Curtis Taylor, Jr., a wannabe manager who is just chomping at the bit to get into show biz.

The girls sign up with Taylor and start out as backup singers for Jimmy "Thunder" Early, who is James Brown, Jackie Wilson and Little Richard all rolled up into one dynamic non-stop ball of cigarette smoking and cocaine snorting, a magical entertainer who is both a sexual predator and a sexual exhibitionist.

The story is one that has been told over and over, and it won’t come as a surprise to anyone in the audience. There is conflict and betrayal and exploitation and greed and determination – everything that made up the era of the sweet soul music so many of us danced to.

What makes this production special is the performances by the entire cast and the entire production team.

The sets by Todd Edward Ivins and the costumes by Alexander B. Tecoma capture the atmosphere of the world of the girl groups. The choreography by Stephen Mear will bring back memories of Saturday mornings watching television. Lighting by Thomas C. Hase was full of the flash and dash that cast spotlights on the divas. The music, directed by Dan Kazemi and supervised by John Tanner, was not only powerful, but it captured both the sweetness and the dramatic arc of the story.

And then there's the cast, a splendid and huge cast of singers, dancers and actors.

The show belongs to Nova Y. Payton who plays Effie. She is the story of every black girl singer who ever tried to make it. Filled with false promises and then cast aside for younger, prettier girls, Payton was full of pathos. A voice like hers doesn’t come along often, and a chance to hear her should never be passed up.

Her moments are many, but none more wonderful than "I Am Changing" at the start of the second act. It’s a song that starts with a whisper and rises to a shout to the heavens that the old life is gone and welcome to the new. I’ve heard the song many times, frequently by "American Idol" contestant Jennifer Hudson. She should sit back and listen to the way Payton delivers this song and learn how a star caresses each word and makes it full of meaning.

Payton has to share her show with dozens of others, but none more memorable than Cedric Neal who plays Jimmy Early.

The comparison to James Brown is unavoidable and perhaps played a huge influence in the creation of this character. But his work combined the Godfather of Soul with Jackie Wilson who delivered some of the hottest and most suggestive performances ever on a stage.

Neal plays with other singers, audience members and himself as he grips the neck of his character. As music tastes change, he morphs from raw power into kind of a non-menacing Johnny Mathis, until even he can’t stand it anymore and returns to what he does best.

There is a temptation, I think, to look at this play as providing some kind of insight into the black experience. If that is your expectation, you will be very disappointed. But if you want to hear a nifty story and hear the kind of music that captured the hearts and minds of a nation, this "Dreamgirls" is for you.

"Dreamgirls" runs through Nov. 1 and information on tickets and showtimes is available here.