Review: DIRTY DANCING at Starlight Theatre

This week at Starlight Theatre; "Dirty Dancing." If you are a die-hard fan of the 1987 film "Dirty Dancing," the live-on-stage version of the film might be the "Time of Your Life." For others, not so much. To enjoy yourself fully, you have to love the film, and this live stage version does faithfully recreate the 100 minutes on celluloid, but it takes 160 minutes (including intermission) to do it.

"Dirty Dancing" is a largely autobiographical "coming of age" tale told by its author Eleanor Bergstein whose family really did vacation in a "Kellerman's-like" Catskill's Resort about this time. The film captured something gentle and appealing with great performances by its original actors. The original film version is surely available via streaming or often on TV.

The difficulty with "Dirty Dancing On Stage" as a musical theatre piece is that it is not one. No music advances the story. The songs are all familiar background pop tracks performed by two random designated singers. Dance as exciting connective tissue remains.

Johnny Castle (Aaron Patrick Craven) and Baby Houseman (Kaleigh Courts) recreate a number of the iconic scenes from the film with verve and obvious talent. The classic "Nobody puts Baby in the corner" sequence at the end of Act II is almost worth the more than two and one half hours the audience has invested. The Penny Johnson character (Johnny's dance partner) was played well by the understudy identified in the program as Kelsey Walsh.

Director Sarna Lapine has crafted a new interpretation of the film and retained much of the original dazzling choreography. She has paid excellent attention to stage pictures and to assuring that the show does not drag at scene changes. Scene changes are highly choreographed. Unfortunately, the lack of definable scenes or story advancing songs robs the audience of knowing when to applaud the actors.

One is left wishing that the translation from screen to stage had given all those good actors and singers and dancers more to work with. There is a lot of fine dancing. The random singing is good. This show is proud it has acquired and added additional music from the civil rights struggle and from The Drifters and Marvin Gaye.

The actors perform their lines well, advance to what should be the song cues, but there is never a song. Often, they turn and exit. It is a weird moment. At first, you do not understand what is missing and then it occurs to you what it is.

I applaud these 24 performers and their talents. The eight-piece orchestra is serviceable. The show lives and has since 2014 on this tour and since 2004 on stage off the nostalgia for the original film. It works, and about 6000 people showed up for opening night. Most seemed pleased.

"Dirty Dancing" continues at Starlight Theatre until Sunday, June 10. Tickets are available on the Starlight website www.starlightkc.com or at the box office in Swope Park.

Photos courtesy of Starlight Theatre and Jeremy Daniel.

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