BWW Reviews: DIRTY DANCING – They Should Have Left Baby in the Corner

Not since "Flashdance" has a more ill conceived, and forced 80's movie turned stage show been forced upon the unsuspecting theater goers in Seattle. But unlike "Flashdance", in "Dirty Dancing" currently playing at the Paramount there weren't quite as many WTF moments to make it somewhat entertaining (in a train wreck kind of way). So what we were left with, save two stunning performances which we will get to in a minute, was a severe lack of storytelling, choreography and acting making this show not a train wreck but just plain bad.

For the most part it's the same story from the movie. Young idealist rich girl Baby (Jillian Mueller) comes with her family in the 1960's to Kellerman's, a resort in the Catskills where the well off can spend their summer playing shuffleboard and bingo and dancing the nights way. But one night while wandering the grounds, Baby ventures into the staff housing where the lower class workers are partying and dancing their more pelvicly centered dance moves. And it's there she meets the hunky and somewhat bad boy dance instructor Johnny (played by understudy Josh Drake). Eventually, after many montages (yes there were montages on stage), they fall for each other.

All the icons from the film are there although blissfully we only get instrumental versions of some of the songs from the soundtrack and never once had to hear one of the worst lyrics ever created, "She's like the wind through my tree". But this isn't so much a musical. Sometimes people do sing live but only as part of the story or as background. And then other times we got pre-recorded 60's standards. The show wants to be more of a dance show but the dancing is so sporadic and under-developed that you wonder why they even bothered. OK, so just a play with music then? Except the story is so forced and rushed through (not to mention the dialog drowned out by the blasting background music) that again, why bother? Much of the acting was so hackneyed and one-note that any kind of investment you might have had in the characters is near impossible. With a severe lack of flow or direction in the piece it just fell flat. Plus, for some reason, they felt it necessary to jam into the story a completely superfluous and gratuitous storyline involving the marches on Selma, Alabama by the freedom riders. A storyline they kept bringing up and then dropping only to have one final visual moment with it at the end that was so far upstage and obscured by a hoard of dancers that if you weren't really paying attention you would miss it altogether.

Mueller and Drake are OK in the roles but have zero chemistry together and just felt to be going through the motions. Jenny Winton as Johnny's knocked up dance partner Penny looks the part and certainly has the moves (when the choreography is there to show them off) and legs for days but her dialog was so wooden and one-note that I wasn't sure what she was trying to convey. The only truly great moments of the show came near the end during the climactic "I've Had the Time of My Life" number. No, not from Johnny and Baby but from singers Jennlee Shallow and Doug Carpenter who, in addition to playing a waitress at the resort and Johnny's watermelon carrying cousin Billy, turned in some thrillingly superb vocals for the number as well as a few others. And each time they did all I could think was, "I want more of THIS show!"

So if you're a fan of the movie, good storytelling or live theater in general then you should probably stay far away from this one. However if you only have a passing recollection of the movie and just want a bland remembrance of it then you might give it a shot. But don't say I didn't warn you. With my three letter rating system I give "Dirty Dancing" a NAH. I'm loathed to give them that high of a rating but the stunning performances from Shallow and Carpenter saved them from the WTF.

"Dirty Dancing" performs at the Paramount Theatre through February 1st. For tickets or information visit Seattle Theatre Group online at www.stgpresents.org.

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