Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Dirty Dancing” the stage musical gets off on the right foot, first with a silhouette foreshadowing a familiar romantic team, then with dance pairs getting down and dirty to the song “This Magic Moment.” They show off their moves behind a scrim while Frances “Baby” Houseman packs her bags and explains that we are following her through the summer of ’63, a time when her dream of changing the world was the Peace Corps.
2 comments:
I think that there is one sentence in this article that pretty sums up my thoughts on this production. It is “rest of the story from the hit 1987 movie”. For a long time, I have had some issues with movies and albums being turned into musicals. I thought there was a lack of originality throughout the industry and didn’t know where it was going. But then I realized, that perhaps this is just a branch of the market now. Today, there is an audience that does not want to see original stories, but would rather be seeing a show that they will know how it will end and where the characters are going. Personally, I do not want to see that type of show, yet I respect that commercially there is a demand for that type of production. I know people that are seeing this show so I will look forward to seeing what they think.
I love the movie "Dirty Dancing"! I don't always like random movies and plays being turned into musicals. I sometimes see that as a way of basely appealing to the audience and not offering up any content. Dirty Dancing, however, is a movie that seems like it was built to be a musical. Music and dance are already really strong parts of the story, and there are many, many times were strong emotions are shown; strong emotions produce singing. I would love to see a Dirty Dancing musical. That being said, this musical is something that would only work if it was done right, and I haven't seen it, but according to this article, it was not done right. I hope they fix their problems and find actors who can dance as well as act. And as a side note, I hope the choreographers stick to the traditional ballroom dancing moves that the movie had. It would be sad if they stepped away from the reality of the dance for the purpose of being showy.
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