A theater piece calculated to emulate belovedmovie
A crowd pleaser that’s more popular than substantial, “Dirty Dancing” on its national tour at the Buell Theatre is all about emulating the movie magic. Flexible spines, grinding hips and some great pipes ( although not the main stars’) distinguish this rousing production, designed to make the crowd want to rush out and rent the 1987 flick.
musical
The playwright Eleanor Bergsteinwas also the screenwriter, aiming to give audiences more time in the company of her fondly remembered characters.
A video backdrop brings a
cinematic touch to the proceedings, which feel as if cast and calculated to evoke the Jennifer Grey- Patrick Swayze movie.
The movie’s essentials are still what work best. While certain plotlines feel artificial, certain monologues about integrity feel speech- y and some moments feel repetitious, the audience goes crazy for the Catskills resort talent show number.
Why the heavy overlay of civil rights messaging, including talk of brave Freedom Riders, a rendition of “We Shall Overcome” and a gathering to listen to the Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a dream” speech via transistor radio by a nighttime campfire ( actually, it was delivered during the day)? High- mindedness doesn’t mesh well with the ethnic shtick, oldies tunes and sexy jitterbug/ mambo lessons.
Not part of the original, this addition seems an attempt to inject gravity the rest of the show can’t support. It’s enough to have the characters talk about socioeconomic differences, which makes sense in the context of the staff versus guest dynamic. Further, the image of happilymingling races at the upstateNew York resort in 1963 is a fiction that undermines the message.
On the plus side, stunning ChristopherTierney ( JohnnyCastle) is riveting, even outdoing the Swayze sex appeal. He is a trained dancer, not a buff actor mimicking dance steps, and the difference elevates the performance.
Gillian Abbott ( as “Baby” Houseman) a relative newcomer, is less stellar as the young innocent whose coming- of- age story this is. Abbott seems more reserved, even after she’s supposed to have been introduced to womanhood, a confrontation with her father, and that famous lift.
She doesn’t smile much. Yet, the song says, she had “the time of her life.” And so, judging by the whooping and hollering, did much of the Buell crowd.