Dirty Dancing, The Musical: A Skip And A Miss

I recently went to see the broadway musical DIRTY DANCING and I was less than impressed, which is disappointing because I was really looking forward to this particular show. I should have just stayed home in my pjs, glass of wine in hand, cat in lap, and watched the original movie, at least then I would have been privy to good singing, good acting, and great dancing, none of which was the case for what I saw Saturday night.

First of all I wouldn't even classify this production as a musical for only two actors sang and it wasn’t even for the entirety of the show. Sometimes they played what sounded to be radio music, which was a bit confusing and unnecessary when you have real singers and real musicians on stage at the ready.

But if you disregard the lack of musical prowess and rely solely on the acting, the troupe dually failed in this aspect as well.  I couldn’t tell if it was bad writing (this is me trying to give the actors a small amount of grace) or if it was their overall timing, but everything just felt too slow, too drawn out and there was no chemistry….between anyone.

Johnny and Penny certainly didn’t have it.  They are supposed to be so lost in their own dancing that their perspective worlds disappear, or at least that is what it always seemed to me. However, in this case the actors looked like they were more concerned with the actual dance steps, which left their emotion somewhere between Do You Love Me and (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life, if they even had it at all.

Johnny and Baby for sure didn’t have it.  Johnny was good enough looking, don’t get me wrong, but he did not claim the stage and thus the audience.  There were moments when I forgot that he was even on stage.  And Baby had no real progression as a character, not to mention her dancing abilities besides being at first terrible, then not completely terrible, and finally a bit better than terrible.

I felt like the audience was collectively just waiting for the last dance scene and the famous lift, which Baby even made appear awkward.

But besides all of that.  The movie to me is so much more than just a love story.  Baby, for perhaps the first time, begins to see beyond her own ideals and the sheltered world she thought she once knew grows a bit dirtier, a bit darker. In contrast, Johnny's perspective about the world also changes, but it becomes a brighter for him. Baby makes Johnny see that the world can be a trusting place and he realizes he is in fact more than who he thought he once was.

The musical missed all of this. The plot was stripped bare of any deeper meaning and a cheesy love story was the only thing that was left to be exposed.  This offends me actually. The writers and producers think so little of their audiences' intelligence that they tried to blind us with the occassional movie one liners and dance numbers in hopes that we would forget the actual meaning behind the story.  It’s not exactly even a love story if you think about it, not the typical kind anyway, but rather, it’s about finding acceptance in others and not judging people for how they look or where they come from. We all have a story to be told, but so many times we are worried about the judgement, the ridicule that we stick to who we know, what we know, instead of exploring something that could make us a better person in the end. Johnny would never have left a dead end job and Baby would have continued to live her sheltered little life without a thought for how some people suffer. But together these two characters abandoned their previous notions, opened themselves up to each other, and became better people for it. A lesson that we all can and should learn. But I warn you, the musical will not provide you with such incites, so instead of putting on your best formal attire, stay home, pop in the DVD (for nostalgic purposes) and get swept away with Swayze's vulnerability and Grey's fortitude.