BWW Reviews: The Show's Not Over Until Baby Sings - DIRTY DANCING

It's incredibly difficult to write about this show as if it were a typical musical.

It isn't.

It opened at The Overture Center yesterday evening, it's a part of the Overture's Broadway season, but it is entirely different from the other shows that came before it.

Dirty Dancing is essentially a stage tribute to the film from which its based, which is evident from the dialogue as it's taken almost verbatim from the movie. As are the iconic songs - even though only a fraction of the performers actually sing. Those actors that do sing are not main characters, which is even more of a shame since so many of the performers (Gillian Abbott and Samuel Pergande as Baby and Johnny respectively) have backgrounds in voice. The fact that the main characters do not even utter a single note is baffling to anyone who is familiar with musical theatre.

For a show that has dedicated itself to be true to the film, it does an excellent job. Stephen Brimson Lewis' simple scenic design incorporating bungalow style shutters with cinematic projections thrown onto them by designer Jon Driscoll transform the stage into a literal live action film. The blank canvas of the white shutters creates the perfect opportunity for sunsets over the Kellerman property, a fine dining experience in the playhouse, or even dancing the night away in the 'staff only' cabins. Driscoll and Lewis' collaboration is what makes the show so visually gorgeous.

A nod to the show's namesake, Dirty Dancing does not fall short on talented dancers. Abbott and Pergande electrify the stage with their movement as they convey the classic love story to love struck audiences. While other performers such as Jenny Winton as Penny mesmerizes onlookers with an unprecedented dedication to the art of dance. This cast approaches the show with no restraint. Each movement is impeccably presented - particularly as Abbott's 'Baby' struggles to unleash her inner dancer.

What the show loses, in its attempt to recreate a cult-classic, is its sincerity.

Doug Carpenter's jaw dropping rendition of "In the Still of the Night" embodied more emotion than the full two hours of Pergande's overtly gruff Johnny. With no variety to speak of, Pergande (along with the majority of the other members of the Houseman family) lacked honesty. Lines were oftentimes forced or given without emotion - particularly when love or anger was involved. Though none of these faults affected Abbott who, despite having no reciprocation, was able to incorporate 'Baby's' every happiness and pitfall.

A live adaptation of the 1987 film is bound to sell tickets. It's going to dazzle the ecstatic fans of the film who will be too enthralled to notice the holes in the casting or the lack of passion from Johnny. It's never going to flat out impress hardened lovers of the archetype of true musical theatre, but it isn't meant to.

Although, I would rather call this particular production theatre with music rather than musical theatre in part because so much of the sound (including some of the film's most iconic songs "Hungry Eyes" or "Maybe") is pre-recorded - to call it otherwise is simply false advertising.

Dirty Dancing may not be conventional or an incredible piece of theatre, but that isn't going to "put Baby in a corner."

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