Shake Your Tail Feather!

Last night Scarf, Mello, Mandz and I went to watch Dirty Dancing, The Stage Show. I am just going to take a moment here to go: aaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!! It was one of the best shows I've seen, although maybe not the very best..... that honour must still go to We Will Rock You (the music, the singing, the music.... well it was Queen, what do you expect?). But it was the movie brought to life beautifully, and I left feeling very satisfied.

I consider myself a connoisseur of Dirty Dancing, the movie. After all, I have watched it over 30 times, most of them with my friend Heath when we were in our teens, and I was - and possibly still am - able to quote the entire movie word for word. In fact, Heath and I used to have sleepovers, where we'd be lying in bed and would, just for the hell of it, recite the script to each other, each playing specific parts (which we could swap at random - we were both experts on all characters). Like 80% of the rest of women on this planet, I crushed hard on Patrick Swayze's bad boy Johnny Castle, and imagined myself twirling and grinding a la Baby in the dance finale. I have even managed to get Shoes enthusiastic about doing the lift, although we have yet to come anywhere close to success. Lifting in the pool is not as easy as Johnny and Baby make it out to be.

So, armed with an intimate knowledge of the movie, and even more importantly, an overwhelming passion for it (the only movie that equals it in my book is Braveheart, even though the two are incomparable in terms of genre), I went in expecting the best, but bracing myself for.... well, not so much. I hadn't researched the critics reviews before going, but I do remember coming across a few in the paper when the show first debuted on the West End over a year ago, and they weren't good. Mostly, they criticised the show for being an unoriginal carbon copy of the movie, and asked why one did not just take out the DVD. These poor misguided souls must either be a) male (and can therefore be forgiven for their delusion - no straight male on the planet likes Dirty Dancing) or b) female and Terminator fans. Of COURSE it's a carbon copy of the movie! This script has already been written; the story already read - can you imagine transporting it into the current decade with our leads meeting at an open casting for an MTV special? Eeeeww. The dialogue was lifted straight out of the film and the characters for the most part wore exactly the same costumes. This is because the purpose of this show is to bring the movie to life. To wow the audience with the up close, sparkling dance numbers and the incredible awkwardness of Baby that makes you cringe when she first meets Johnny in the dancers' shack. What would Dirty Dancing be without: I carried a watermelon?

I thought it did the movie justice, and brought things the movie couldn't give us, especially in terms of the dancing. While it didn't have that slightly sleazy feel it does in the film, the choreography was more complex and the dancers absolutely shone. Especially Nadia Coote, the Aussie actress in the role of Penny. She came out during the Hungry Eyes scene in a skin tight black playsuit, and every single one of the audience gasped - male and female alike. Rarely do you get the opportunity to see so perfect a human body. We were four girls, and our jaws all dropped. She is enchanting to watch - she dances like she has wings on her feet, and is so beautiful she looks like a fantastical faerie doing it. I would have to say she stole every scene she was in. Baby was more difficult to like, at least, at first. I don't know if we got her on an off night, but for the first half hour I felt she was going through the motions, and I wasn't really buying it. I got worried then, because the whole story hinges on Baby, and I love her in the film from beginning to end. Luckily though, after half an hour she seemed to warm up, and by the end she WAS Baby.

The first half was good; the second half absolutely killed it! Even though there were a couple of extra scenes that weren't in the movie, but which were also written by Eleanor Bergstein, the creator of the original film, the momentum was kept up, and we were made to feel like guests at the Kellerman's holiday camp. By the end, the audience was so involved and excited that there was a constant rumble, and by the time Johnny made his grand entrance from a side door and strode over to the Houseman's table to utter the immortal line, "Nobody puts baby in a corner" - everyone went completely hysterical with joy!

The final dance - an iconic scene in film and the fantasy of nearly every woman in the world - was brilliantly done; lift and all! I don't know if I was the only one moved near to tears with the fulfillment of it, but I suspect not. The only downside to the evening for me was that I'm broke, and couldn't afford any of the gorgeous merchandise they had for sale after the show. Luckily I found it available online today, so as soon as we get back from Italy, I'm getting a couple of Dirty Dancing tees.... my big problem is deciding which slogan to choose! :-)