Dirty Dancing The Review

Who didn’t ‘have the time of their life’ thanks to Patrick Swayze ad Jennifer Grey in the 80s timeless classic ‘Dirty Dancing’?  Who wasn’t entranced by the naïve and idealistic ‘Baby’ taking her first steps to womanhood and self-enlightenment in the toned, muscled arms of the exploited and struggling dance genius and his hypnotic hips?  1987’s Dirty Dancing has, for many, become the definitive movie for sexual awakening, dream realisation and speared the dance film genre to the forefront of, the underdog bites back through artistic expression, box office legends. 

The swinging 60s with their pastel cinematic grain, family values and infancy of graphic and explicit, global acceptance made the hot and heavy, sensual metaphor of the ‘new style’ of dancing both elicit and alluring.  It broke through a wall of silence straight to the hidden underbelly of human interaction and desires and stripped bare the judgements still lingering of the class system, human worth and propriety. 

Certainly for the vast majority of the female viewers, anyway, they recall their first viewing of this movie with the precision of historic moments like where they were when Kennedy was assassinated or when the twin towers fell and the world fell with them onto its knees in shock and grief.  So, of course, it was only a matter of time before a film that seemed so theatrical, ticking all the check boxes for a visual, epic and emotional journey on the stage, would be brought in front of live audiences but, as ever, when you’re working with a much loved template, what was lost in translation?  Should a performance by rehashed without being remade or made better and can the later styles and advances of stage and screen trump the original classic?

Having seen Dirty Dancing on stage at the Aldwych Theatre near

Drury Lane

on London’s West End, this theatre critic would have to respond with a resounding, ‘No!’  The main problem for such ventures is that ticket holders arrive with certain expectations and a hype that is hard to live up to and such cursed shows often don’t.  Seasoned theatre goers would expect not only a rendition of the plot and romantic tale of the classic film but, using that as the premise, for it to be merged with the intimacy and raw seduction of theatre.  What young girl didn’t visualise the renegade, fiery Swayze dancing with them in close quarters, being spellbound by the rhythm of the pulsing, music beat, smelling the sweat and power of a precision controlled body as it swoops and flexes in primal fluidity and movement?  Getting a personal show of the distant film rolls and being held in rapt attention by mesmerising performances and ‘come to bed with me’ eyes?

Unfortunately the reality was quite different.  The director seemed so intent on replicating the on screen extravaganza that they forgot that theatre is a completely separate medium that, if used correctly, can go places that cinema screens can never manage.  The West End show tried to redo, chapter and verse, the set and scenes of the movie and thus came across as disjointed, like a series of skits, without the film device of effortless scene changes, short dialogues and moments that can be captured in a few seconds of film but on stage means dragging new backdrops and props out of the wings for short snips of time.  You can’t possibly represent every backdrop, the club house, the kitchen where penny is lying distraught, the fallen tree, beam walking over the river scene, the ocean, the lonely road, the quick change in the car etc and not overwhelm the audience with jerking shifts instead of a natural progression and flow. 

Also a lot of the scenes they were trying to represent only worked on film due to the ability of close-up shots, getting inside that car, being able to block out the set design and focus on the prominent action, capture the lead stars faces and conversations while throngs of resort staff danced around them.  Trying to put this all on the stage just confused the focus of the audience and made the interactions seem unnatural and literally ‘staged’.

There was also the chance to make this production into a proper musical especially with the fantastic soundtrack of the movie already in existence but instead the leads didn’t sing and only danced in the structure of the film which actually leaves the best dancers, dancing the least.  The film forces Baby and Johnny’s dancing duelling into a montage because it has to focus on the emotion and relationship between the characters but on stage, emotion is, arguable, best represented through music and dance.  The poignant, charged songs could have been sung and enacted, the most breathtaking moments savoured and enhanced instead of trying to condense every second of movie history into a time constrained live show.  With so many scene changes, to remain devout to the original, the audience didn’t have the chance to develop a proper emotional attachment and understanding of the characters and the whole feeling of the original script would probably have been lost completely without previous knowledge and carrying the love and appreciation over from watching the movie.

Having said all that, the audience that was being catered for were those there to have a good time and to see ‘everything’ that they loved and remembered so fondly and although the idea and execution seemed amateurish, it gave exactly what it advertised, a complete retelling of Dirty Dancing and this, along with the amazing tracks that went along with the action (some of which were sung by the performers in narration as opposed to conversation) made for a great girly night out, hen party style. 

The concept was obviously extremely difficult for the actors as well, chopping and changing within a few minutes from, for example, Baby yelling at Robbie, flirting with Johnny, arguing with her sister and pleading with her dad and thus the acting, especially in the case of Johnny Castle, came across as stilted, wooden and even a little frantic and messy, like the whole set-up.

The show wasn’t taken seriously as was evidenced by the laughter of the audience when ‘Johnny’ started to strip and the raucous, non-proportional cheering when certain famous lines were said, ‘Nobody puts Baby in a corner’.  It was also of note that there were a few moments strikingly different from the movie (and thus highlighted), rushed dialogue inserted to ‘polish’ off the meaning of scenes which was of a low writing standard and came across as unnecessary and ‘cheesy’.

Ardolino’s movie was slow, sultry and sexy, simmering to a boil and delivering high impact, sensual performances whereas the stage show was like a karaoke version, sung out of tune.  I did enjoy myself and the music and giddy atmosphere was wonderful but it could have been so much more, which is, I think, what disappointed the most.  There is so much more sensuality in Wicked where the protagonist is green and romance isn’t the main issue being dealt with, more dancing in avenue q, where they’re puppets and more genuine and emotional singing in ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and that’s saying something.  To me this is wrongly classed as a musical as the music is incidental and only there because it was used on screen.

Special mention does have to be made to Ray Quinn who does have a beautiful voice and sings a little in the show and obviously tried to infuse a little emotion into proceedings.  His expression pleasantly distracted me from the leads in his role as Billy, general ensemble and token talent.  Even though he is a good dancer he didn’t dance.  The whole thing was like upside down world and grated on someone who loves theatre as this in many respects was a mockery of the medium’s inherent charms.  The cast are now going on tour so Dirty Dancing will be coming soon to a ‘theater’ near you!