Dirty Dancing: a review

It took me six weeks to deliver on Mom’s birthday present. She wanted to see Dirty Dancing, with me, so we went to Montecasino last night for the performance.

I was always hesitant about it; I love the movie and I know how changing the format of a story can ruin the original, and all the good feelings that become associated with it. But, my view on birthdays (it’s the one day a year you are entitled to be completely selfish) meant that I bought us tickets and was mildly enthusiastic throughout.

The stage production didn’t ruin the film for me, but that doesn’t mean it was particularly good either.

Although a script written for the stage can be masterfully altered into a film, the opposite really isn’t true. On the plus side, the sets were well done, the costumes authentic and the dancing entertaining (but I’m sure a professional ballroom dancer would find fault somewhere).  And aside from two scenes that were invented to keep the storyline going and give mother Marge (she was rather good) some decent stage time, the script was pretty close to the original. Oh, and sister Lisa’s hula scene was brilliant.

What let the whole thing down was the acting. I assume to get a bit of audience reaction they tried to make it funny in places. It got laughs, but really wasn’t in keeping with the tone with the original story. With the exception of two actors, the American accent was atrocious. At one point Dr Houseman spoke with a British accent!

I know the character isn’t a softy, but in the movie Johnny had some really tender, and some really angst-filled, moments with Baby. But the guy I saw last night displayed one emotion – gruff. I suspect this was because he was concentrating so hard on his accent. And no one, other than Patrick Swayze, can deliver the line “No one puts baby in the corner” without sounding like an idiot.

Baby tried too hard to be funny, and it spoilt the mood. For what is supposed to be a serious love story, it was disconcerting to have people laughing, usually when I’d just managed to forget I was in a room with about 500 other people.

Perhaps I’ve been spoilt by the superior acting ability of Hollywood, perhaps I’m a giant snob, but I always seem to expect more from the actors and actresses who grace our stages than what is delivered.

It wasn’t a waste of money, but if you’re planning to see it, here’s my advice:

1: Don’t watch the movie before you go. You’ll either come away completely disappointed in the show or hating the film. And give the show a few months to work itself  from your short term memory before popping in the DVD.

2: Buy the cheapest tickets – there’s no need to throw money away.

3: Use it as a girl’s night outing; have a couple glasses of wine before and practice your wolf whistles for the shirtless scenes. The scene with Johnny in his boxers could use a whistle too.