Interview: Gina Lamparella of DIRTY DANCING at Nederlander Theatre

Nobody puts Baby in a corner — but what about Marjorie Houseman? Dirty Dancing: The Musical is in Chicago through September 20, and BroadwayWorld spoke with Gina Lamparella who plays the matriarch of the family about her unique experience on this new tour. 

The interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

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You’re fresh off the start of this new tour! How has it been so far, and how are you liking Chicago? 

It's been great! The reaction to the show has been even more than I expected. I think audiences are so excited to see the show, and the response from the audience has been so vocal — like entrance applause for certain characters and vocal responses to iconic lines or iconic scenes in the movie. That was something I really didn't expect and it actually just ups the level of enjoyment for all of us on stage. It's so fun, so that has been an exciting thing I was not expecting. 

Absolutely! I was there opening night and what you were saying about the response from the audience — it was very energizing to feel that from the house, so I can only imagine what it was like from the stage.

Yeah, that's a great word for it. It is energizing. The first time we heard this kind of response was like, ‘Oh my god, this is so great.’ Because we're having a great time on stage, but you don't always know how the audience is feeling about things, so when you get that kind of response, you're like, ‘Oh, okay, great. We're all having fun!’ 

And I absolutely love Chicago. I've been here many times. We were all very excited to come to Chicago, I wish we could be here longer. There's so much to do and there's such a vibrant theater scene here, so people are used to going to see live theater. It's exciting to have that audience come out. We've really enjoyed our time here, and I'm looking forward to the rest of this week. 

What is your relationship to Dirty Dancing the movie? 

Well, I grew up watching this movie. I've seen it many, many times, probably more than anyone else in the company, just because I'm of that age. I have always loved it. I'm a person who’s always loved musical theater, so to have this coming-of-age movie that has all this music and dancing integral to the story was always a big draw for me. I was so excited to get the opportunity to do this. 

I know when there are adaptations of classics, you try not to compare to the original. But you had some big shoes to fill with Kelly Bishop as Marjorie Houseman in the film. What inspiration did you take from the movie, if anything, and how did you make Marjorie your own on stage? 

Yes, Kelly Bishop is an icon, and even at that time, she was a big Broadway star. Everyone knew who she was in the Broadway world, and then she went on to do so much more. You know, it's interesting. Her part was so small in the movie. It presented a little bit of a challenge for me because I wanted to honor her development and interpretation of the character, but in a play, we have the opportunity to expand because we just have more time in two acts. There is some new material in the show. All the iconic things that you want to see from the film are in the play, but we had the opportunity to fill in and expand some things, and one of the big areas was the relationships in the family. There's just more opportunity for me to explore Marjorie's relationship with Baby and Marjorie's relationship with Jake and how the family fits into the story in general. So I really thought a lot about that. The family dynamics and the relationship of a mom with older children to me is the thing that I have loved exploring the most. I have two kids. Marjorie has a teenager and basically a young adult daughter. It's that time of life where they're becoming more independent, so as the parents, it's, ‘Where do I step in and where do I let them go?’ There’s this fun dynamic where the kids think you don't know anything. Like, ‘You don't know. You don't know how I'm feeling. You don't know what's going on.’ And Marjorie knows a lot. So it's also been very fun to go, ‘All right, what do I know? What don't I know? What do I suspect? When do I step in? And when do I just keep silent and let it play out?’ All of that has been really fun to explore.

You have an extensive Broadway credit list, as well as experience as a director and choreographer! Tell me more about your work choreographing and how that has shaped your experience with Dirty Dancing and seeing the extensive choreography happening in the show. 

I absolutely love the work they did with the choreography. I've actually learned a lot because I definitely think of myself as an actor and director first, and then I've done some choreography. So what I love is when the choreography lifts up the story. What I try to do is not just put steps on the stage, but really tell the story with choreography or enhance what's going on already in the story. They've done such a great job with that in this show, so I feel like I'm learning a lot as a choreographer not just with the storytelling, but also every transition — we're not just bringing things on and off. There's a story in every bit of the play and I just found that really inspiring.

The transitions were definitely something I noticed when I saw the show, how everyone's very much in character even as they're bringing stuff on and off stage and just the flow in their movement. 

It's been really great to be in the room and watch. It was never just, ‘Here are the steps you're doing.’ There was a lot of, ‘All right, here's the story we're trying to tell here, try this, what do you feel about this?’ The dancers, the actors, we've all had input into what feels right in any situation. It has been a really great collaborative process, and I've learned a lot from it. 

So I found Dirty Dancing: The Musical interesting as a viewer because the leads don’t really sing — it’s Elizabeth and Billy who are the characters singing the iconic songs from the soundtrack as the backdrop to dance numbers — and I just thought that was really unique for a musical. Dirty Dancing also has a big cast with many speaking supporting roles. I’m curious if you could speak to what it’s been like working on this show as one of those supporting characters who plays a big part in Baby’s character development but you don’t have any big song or dance number as one might expect for a musical. 

It's very different from what I've done in the past. I've been hired most of my career because I'm a singer. So to come into this and go, ‘Oh, that's it. Just a little tiny rhythm singing’ — it’s actually kind of freeing in a way. It's unlike anything that I've done before, but I'm really enjoying it and I have just a lot of great scenes to explore. In every play that you do, you don't get to do everything that you do. So in some places, you're doing more singing or more dancing. And this one, I get to explore those acting chops that I can really concentrate on. I actually really love it, and I love what I'm doing out there. The other thing is that I realized pretty quickly, especially in the finale, I have a front row seat to this incredible dancing every single night, and I'm so lucky to have that.

Oh yes, you really do have a great view of that in the last scene! 

They're fantastic. And they're just full out every night with little tiny differences, they're finding what's happening tonight as opposed to last night. I feel very lucky to be sitting in that seat in the finale to watch all of that. 

Finally, what’s something you’ve learned from Marjorie Houseman? 

I've learned a lot about relationships with older children. Marjorie is really smart and intuitive, and she doesn't always have to let you know what she knows or what she's thinking. She's very good at just taking in what's going on and knowing when to say something, when to intervene. I want to sit back and see what happens and let people make their own choices and sometimes make their own mistakes. That's really hard as a parent. It's been interesting to explore that kind of parenting, so I think I've learned to maybe step back a little bit and just let things happen as they will. 

I'm sure your kids appreciate that as well. 

Yes, I think they probably do. 

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Thank you to Gina Lamparella and Broadway in Chicago for this interview!