Stage it and studio will spring for fees

DREAMWORKS Pictures is using an unusual promotional tool to tout its upcoming “Dreamgirls” film, based on the 1981 Broadway musical about a Supremes-like group’s rise to stardom: Effective Jan. 1, the company is offering to pay the licensing fees for all amateur stage productions of the musical mounted in 2006 in the United States and Canada.

The offer applies to high schools, colleges and community theaters.

Yes, it’s about promoting the film, says the film’s director, Bill Condon (“Kinsey”), who adapted the screenplay from Tom Eyen’s Tony Award-winning book. It’s also a “great opportunity,” he says, to expose new audiences to live theater.

The film, featuring such star power as Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles and Eddie Murphy, shouldn’t dampen enthusiasm for multiple stage productions but do just the opposite, says Condon, whose screenplay adaptation of the musical “Chicago” was nominated for an Oscar.

“Take ‘Chicago.’ When we were making that movie, Fred Ebb [the original musical’s lyricist and, with Bob Fosse, book writer] was always concerned that the movie version would close down the show. But there’s been a tremendous uptick in international productions and amateur and stock productions.”