Dirty Dancing...a resounding meh

Well, I wish I could say that the 'Dirty Dancing: the Musical' was as fantastic as I was hoping it would be.

First, let me preface this by saying I love musicals. I mean, really love them. And I don't think there's a woman of my generation who doesn't have a soft spot for Dirty Dancing, even if they don't love it. I went to see the musical last night with my three theatre going friends, and all of us had a fairly vivid memory of our first viewing of the film. It was a birthday party, or a sleepover and 3 of the four of us remember rewinding scenes or even the whole film to watch it over and over again. So you definitely had 4 people who were predisposed to love the musical.

And really? It wasn't so good. It wasn't so much a musical as it was a reenactment of the movie onstage, with a mostly soundtrack backing of the action. And that's probably ok. In fact, it probably wouldn't work if they had scrapped the soundtrack that we all know so well and had new songs for Baby and Johnny to sing dialogue at each other. The three performers who actually sang some of the key songs in the production were very good, especially the final performance of "I've had the time of my life".


My biggest gripe with the production, no question, was that anytime there was a section of added dialogue or plot that wasn't in the movie it was jarring. That's not to say that they shouldn't have added to or changed the story, but if they were going to do it they needed to do a better job. The character of Baby's mom was given a trio of extra scenes with Baby, Jake (Baby's dad) and Penny (the knocked up dancer) which I think were supposed to give the character more depth or something, but she really didn't need to be more than the '60's mom' in order to drive the story. There was a whole added in storyline about racial equality that was an excuse for Baby and Johnny to have another argument to expand on their differences and to flash a picture of Martin Luther King on the screen (yes, you read that correctly) to which my only response was...Really?!? There was a bunch of added lines to stress the 'class' differences in the groups of people in the story...did they think we wouldn't get that?!?

My other issues were more minor. The actor playing Johnny Castle seemed to be a bit too pretty and polished (like a Disney prince come to life is how D put it). I think I had a different perspective on the inappropriateness of the relationship between the two seeing it fresh as a thirtysomething instead of a tween :-). There were a couple of moments that really weren't supposed to be funny that elicited laughter from the audience.

The good things? The set design was incredible...absolutely amazing to see how they managed to bring all the different locations to the stage. The log scene in the woods and lift practice in the water were among the moments that stood out. The final dance performance, kicked off with Johnny rushing to the stage from the back of the theatre, made you feel like you were living in the movie. The general nostalgic memories that kicked in with the opening bar on almost every song.


All that said, I know I'll end up seeing it again during it's run in Toronto (however long it lasts). As a musical it wouldn't make the top 20 list of productions I've seen, but as a night out with the girls involving some martinis and a chance to reminisce, it definitely delivers. We walked out of the theatre with plans to get together to watch the movie Saturday night.

But I really hope this isn't a sign as to how the rest of my top five are going to deliver.