He’s up, up, up for an Oscar

FOR the film version of “Dreamgirls,” the musical’s composer, Henry Krieger, along with producers the Underdogs -- Harvey Mason Jr. and Damon Thomas -- added four songs to the original lineup.

Last week he was at his New York apartment talking to director Bill Condon about the Oscars but hung out long enough to answer a few questions.

Only three of the four new songs you wrote for the “Dreamgirls” movie were nominated for an Oscar. Are you terribly disappointed?

I know! I’m so upset! I called my attorneys, but they say I don’t have a case. It’s especially funny because one can only win one of those nominations. At my point in my career and life, it’s a pleasant distraction. I’m a simple guy who lives in Greenwich Village who walks my dog around, and everybody knows us. We stop at the bookstore and buy a book, she gets a biscuit.

I assume that you’ll be flying west for the most important night of the entire year?

Yeah! Actually, there’s a lunch for the Oscar nominees, which I’m told is lots of fun. Then that evening, Jeffrey Katzenberg is throwing a cocktail party for Eddie Murphy. Then the next day I fly back because I have a reading for a new musical I’m writing -- “The Flamingo Kid.”

Are you bringing an Oscars date?

Oh, you bet I am -- my life partner. Do you know the actor Robert Joy? When he was a mere slip of a lad, he was Madonna’s boyfriend in “Desperately Seeking Susan” -- he played opposite Burt Lancaster in “Atlantic City.” Now he’s your eccentric medical examiner on “CSI: New York” every Wednesday night. Anyway, he’s my buddy, and we’ve been together 12 years.

“Dreamgirls” opened on Dec. 20, 1981 -- just a few months after MTV premiered. Prince released “Controversy”; Minnie Riperton put out a greatest-hits; Diana Ross released “Why Do Fools Fall in Love.” And Public Enemy would be formed the next year. What did it mean for a white man to work in black music then?

I had been a teenager in the ‘60s when people like Etta James, Aretha Franklin were on my radio stations, and we’d drive around in our beatup cars. And these were our heroes. Ray Charles was an amazement to me when I discovered him. Fats Waller was a saint to me. And I cared a lot about what Martin Luther King was trying to accomplish. I had worked as a press agent for Jerry Butler and Curtis Mayfield -- and in high school, I’d cut school to go to the Apollo to see James Brown and Gladys Knight.

We wanted to show these human beings who happened to be African American performers who were relegated to what was called the chitlin circuit. We wanted to write about the ambitions of a handful of African American musicians that were making the cross-over.

Thanks to the magic of YouTube, now all of us can watch “And I Am Telling You” being torn up by Jennifer Holliday live at the 1982 Tony Awards.

I was there all right. That was toned down. There was still some creakiness about what you could do on television. I almost wish we still had some of it! I guess that’s the old fogy in me. The older you get, the more you find what’s au courant a little bit jarring.

Speaking of things you can see on YouTube, did you see Jake Gyllenhaal performing it on “Saturday Night Live” a few weeks ago?

He was so cute! He has a wonderful smile. And it’s funny he was wearing the gown with those perfect biceps and all. A handsome young man!

I thought he was wonderful to take on that cowboy movie, “Brokeback Mountain,” and I thought he was a doll doing the song on “SNL.” What a lovely essence he has. He seems like such a good young man, filled with love, and the more the better with that. Look at the films you see -- they’re all about breaking people’s bones and making them bleed and killing them. I prefer seeing joy.