Is this show the time of your life? Or is it downright dirty?
I saw Dirty Dancing on stage at the New Theatre Oxford, and this was actually the second time I’d seen the show on tour. I first saw it four or five years earlier at the Wycombe Swan in High Wycombe, and though I remembered enjoying the evening, I wasn’t wowed by it.
The production at the New Theatre Oxford didn’t improve my view on the show, but it didn’t make it any worse.
The show is a fairly faithful adaptation of the movie, and that is mostly a good thing. The film is a classic and fans of it will be happy to see it come to life on stage.
Strangely for a stage musical, is it’s actually debatable if it should count as a musical or not. The characters don’t sing. You won’t find Johnny and Baby singing The Time of Our Loves in this show. They just do the dances as the characters did in the movie. For a show that literally has dancing in the title I find this understandable as it may be weird to have the iconic lift with lyrics being sung by Baby lifted in the air.
Other than the guy who sings at the club who is a character and Baby’s sister who sings in a talent contest, all the singing in the show is by performers who are only in the show to sing.
Now, maybe this is one of those weird Mandela effects, but in my head I thought that the scene where Johnny and Baby practice the lifts in water was achieved with a projection of water up to their waists when I saw the show a few years ago. Maybe it was, but when we saw it at the New Theatre Oxford they were behind a screen, but there was no water effect. That was a shame. Still a fun sequence with splosh sound effects to help.
Mostly it was a fun show to see, and the cast were all great performers, but there was one cast member who I wasn’t enamoured with. That was Johnny. Now, just so there’s not any confusion, I thought the guy did a good job and was a good performer, but he didn’t nail the Patrick Swayze vibe that the role needs. I doubt it’s the same cast as when I saw it a few years ago, but I had the same thought then.
Patrick Swayze had a charm and likeableness about him that really worked for this role, but I couldn’t help but think that Johnny here came across as a bit of a douchebag. Maybe it’s the script and that the big guys they have play the role just come off like jocks. I’m not sure, but the script and the lack of Swayze’s charm just makes Johnny seem a tough guy when he should have that sensitive side Swayze brought to his roles.
This is a nitpick though as I’m sure most who see this will just want the Dirty Dancing nostalgia and this provides it.
Conclusion
Dirty Dancing The Classic Story on Stage is a good show, and great if you’re a big fan of the film, but average stage adaptation beyond that for everyone else. Either way, it is safe to say that nobody puts Baby in the corner.
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