DIRTY DANCING at Fox gives fans time of their lives
– By Cate Marquis –
For moms who loved the movie “Dirty Dancing,” the Fox Theater has the perfect Mother’s Day treat. Moms will have the time of their lives at the delightful national tour of “Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage,” at the Fabulous Fox Theater, May 12-14.
The stage production follows the same story as the film but with some extra songs, such as The Drifters’ “Save the Last Dance for Me,” songs that the filmmakers had originally tried to secure for the film. It has all the dancing, singing, fun, drama, nostalgia – and romance – as you remember. The stage production includes a live band, playing from a balcony above the main stage, movable set pieces and backdrops where pretty views of the resort grounds are projected. In the second act, a couple of scenes puts the leads, Johnny and Baby, right in the landscape, by use of projection on semi-transparent screens in front of the actors, a very pleasing effect. The show is divided into two acts, with an intermission before a much shorter second act.
Seventeen-year-old Frances “Baby” Houseman (Rachel Boone, replacing Jillian Mueller on opening night) is staying in a Catskills family resort, Kellerman’s, with her father Dr. Jake Houseman (Jon Edward Powell), mother Marjorie (Rachel Bell Carpenter) and older sister Lisa (Alyssa Brizzi). Dr. Houseman named his younger daughter for Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve in the U.S. Cabinet, but everyone in the family calls her Baby. Baby and her father are close, and he has high hopes bright, confident Baby will accomplish great things. There is a little sibling jealousy from her less-serious older sister, but Lisa is pretty busy flirting with boys, particularly Robbie Gould, a boy from a “nice family” working at the resort.
The affluent family stays at the resort every year, but there is a sense that the era of all-inclusive family resorts like Kellerman’s is coming to an end as the Civil Rights era begins. Max Kellerman (Gary Lynch) is a friend of Dr. Houseman, and Max runs the place with his partner Tito Suarez (Jerome Harmann Hardeman) and is training his awkward teen-aged grandson Neil (Matt Sturges) to help. Kellerman’s hires teens from “nice families” as waiters, and encourages them to dance and flirt with the daughters of the families, to see that they have a nice time. Guests’ days are filled with activities like golf, swimming, croquet, horseshoes, plus contests and lessons in dancing and other activities.
Nights are filled with dancing, music and comedy entertainment from the work-class entertainment staff. Handsome lead dancer Johnny Castle (Christopher Tierney) and his beautiful dance partner Penny Johnson (Jennifer Mealani Jones), reportedly a former Rockette, wow the guests with dance performances nightly, and both are much in demand for lessons. Sometimes “bungalow bunnies” such as Vivian Pressman (Jennifer Dillow), wives who stay at the resort while their husbands spend the week working in the hot city in this pre-air conditioning era, want something more than private dance lessons from Johnny.
Like the movie, there is a class divide element to this story. Guests are forbidden in the area where the working-class entertainment staff live yet Baby ends up there when she helps a staff member carry an armful of watermelons. There she finds the staff’s nightly party in full swing, and is wowed to see them “dirty dancing,” so unlike the tame fox trot they teach guests. Johnny gives Baby an impromtu dance lesson and discovers she has a natural talent.
The actors are all effective in their roles. The romantic chemistry between Boone and Tierney as Baby and Johnny is particularly good. Brizzi brings a humorous touch as slightly ditsy Lisa, particularly in a cute comic performance for the resort’s talent show, wearing a grass skirt and singing a ’40s style novelty number in “Lisa’s Hula.”
Naturally, dancing is a feature of this show, and the cast really delivers on this count. The dance numbers between Tierney and Jones as the pro dancers Johnny and Penny are truly eye-popping, and the audience gasped with appreciation time and again. It was clear from the audience reaction that many were fans of the film, eager to enjoy the footwork fireworks. The final scene, where Johnny delivers that “nobody puts Baby in a corner” line to start the dance extravaganza, drew cheers from the audience, and even more cheering when the pair did that famous lift at the end.
Music is also a big part of this production, and all the songs from the movie are included plus a few more. The signature song “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” is heard three times, with the last rousing time lifting the audience to their feet. The singing heavy-lifting was left to a pair of supporting characters, Elizabeth (Chante Carmel) and Billy (Jordan Edwin Andre), who played out a second romance, an inter-racial one that suited the Civil Rights era story. In particular, Jordan Edwin Andre’s voice was spectacularly thrilling, shaking the Fox theater rafters with its power and sending chills through the house. Although the story is about dancing, singers Chante Carmel and Jordan Edwin Andre won the biggest applause at show’s end for this vocal fireworks.
One weekend is a short run, but DIRTY DANCING is the effort for the perfect treat for Mother’s Day, or for any fan of the movie or dancing.
© Cate Marquis
