BWW Reviews: DIRTY DANCING is an Off-Beat Production
Dirty Dancing is now playing at the Aronoff and if I had to simply sum up my thoughts on the production I would say this: This show has a major identity crisis going on. It appeared that the decision makers for this production didn't know if they wanted it to be a play or a musical. There was way too much singing for it to be a play and yet the main characters didn't sing at all so it couldn't be considered a musical. In an interview, the book writer (also the script writer for the original movie) said this production was more like a play with music. I get wanting to try something new and I appreciate when it works out but this "play with music" didn't work, at all.
Unfortunately, there is only bad. The book/story was lackluster and this is coming from someone that truly enjoys the movie. This particular story just doesn't translate to the stage the way that it should. Plus it added some storyline about the Civil RIghts Movement of the 1960s. While that sounds like it would be an interesting added point, there is absolute no follow through and only gets about 1 minute of stage time therefore it ended up confusing the audience. Another inadequate thing about the script were the scene transitions. They were abrupt and made no sense to put it easily. The most important element that was bad was the music. Now, I don't know if Dirty Dancing is selling itself as a musical or not but either way the music is just not good. Because this show revolves around the movie soundtrack or songs of that decade, the music does not go along with whatever is happening in the scene. An example: there's a fight scene that is happening while a slow version of "You Don't Own Me" is sang.
The cast was okay but with only background actors singing there isn't much to judge here. I saw Jillian Mueller in Flashdance so I know that she is talented but she doesn't get much to work with here as Baby (she never sings). I wasn't a fan of Samuel Pergande as Johnny (my grandmother was however), he didn't seem to have any actual emotion or at least was deadpan the whole show. There was no real standout when it comes to the supporting cast either.
If you're a fan of the movie, you may like this show but if you are looking for a real musical, hold off until Once the Musical next month. What bothers me the most about Dirty Dancing is that I could tell there were a lot of people there that don't normally go to musicals and they saw a show that won't make them want to see another and that is a shame.
Photo by Matthew Murphy
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