Krieger has a history with the Apollo  Most Broadway-centric
legiters aren’t known for making frequent trips uptown to the
Apollo Theater.  But for “Dreamgirls” composer Henry Krieger,
the current revival of the musical isn’t his first time at the
fabled music venue.  It’s been a destination for the Gotham-
raised composer since his high school days.  “My friends and I
were skipping school to go to the Apollo,” he says.  Krieger and
his friends trekked to the theater to see what were then
referred to as “Negro acts” (and in a part of town that was
still considered risky).  “We knew that if you wanted to see
that kind of music, that’s where you went,” he says.  As a
delinquent member of the high school class of 1963, he caught
perfs by some of the legendary musicians of the era, including
James Brown, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Otis Redding and Smokey
Robinson and the Miracles.  Later, at age 25, Krieger became a
press agent representing, among other clients, African-American
acts that often played the Apollo.