Watermelons & Corners: Dirty Dancing - Birmingham Hippodrome

‘No one puts Baby in a corner’ and the audience screamed.

I’m not a big fan of the film (this was my sister and my cousin’s idea) and for my birthday last weekend I would have preferred to see Rock of Ages. But with the negative points stacking up (‘the Ages’ not being on tour, no friends to spend my birthday with and this was the only date we could get good tickets -7 rows from the front), this show turned my boring birthday into an excellent afternoon out.

Let me get the obvious out of the way, no one will ever equal or be half as good as the late Patrick Swayze. No one can fill his amazing dancing shoes and for the first act of this stage show this thought effected my judgement of Paul –Michael ‘Johnny Castle’ Jones, he was a brilliant dancer and a good actor and Jill ‘Baby’ Winternitz was excellent and her facial expressions were brilliantly timed and very comical.  By the second act I had forgotten about the movie actors, remembered how good the soundtrack was and accepted this different version.

The stage show included all the memorable scenes from the film: the river, the log, Johnny stroking Baby’s arm and her trying not to laugh, the watermelon and of course the end which was word for word. Yes ‘the time of my life’ was my favourite part of the show, but another highlight was when Johnny is in his underwear and he starts to put his trousers on and one lone female voice in the audience heaves a sigh of disappointment, queue laughter from the rest of the audience.

Dirty Dancing the stage show is a very close second to the film and deserved its standing ovation.

I wish more West End shows would go on tour; not everyone lives in or can afford to travel to London. Rock of Ages producers take note.

Crime Fighting Dream Team

After spending last month dreaming about my Football Dream Team and watching reruns of American cop shows I started to wonder what an ultimate Crime Fighting Dream Team would consist of.  Of course Avengers Assembles is the ultimate movie Dream Team but what about Television’s version.

Last season’s Hawaii 5- 0 and NCIS: Los Angeles mix up was brilliant. Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) and Danny ‘Danno’ Williams (Scott Caan) should have their own show. McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) was missed by me, but then again there was so many characters I don’t think I missed him that much.

Let’s break this down:

To build my TV Crime fighting team - who would I need? A good mix up would be McGarrett and Criminal Minds' FBI Agent Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore) or Bones's FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) and Blue Bloods's Detective Danny Regan (Donnie Walhberg) or maybe CTU's 24 hour guy Jack Baber (Kiefer Sutherland) and the CIA's Homeland's Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes).

The Boss:  I can’t think of any good Prime Ministers, in real life or TV land, so they will have to be American. President David Palmer was close however due to him being ‘dead’ it has to be Commissioner Regan (Tom Selleck) for Blue Bloods with Prosecutor Caroline Julian (Patricia Belcher) from Bones as his second in command or maybe vice versa.  I think she would show him who's boss.

Reserve: Hettie Lange (Linda Hunt) from NCIS: Los Angeles.

Elite Police squad: I would include all of  the Criminal Minds team and have FBI Supervisory Agent Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) as head of this elite team. Then add Detective Danny Regan, just because he was in New Kids on the Block and the fact he always cracks a case and usually a criminal’s face. Mix in FBI Agent Booth who has a similar attitude to Regan, and add rogue cop Eddie Caplan (Jean-Hugues Anglade) from Braquo. Every police team needs a rogue cop and if I hadn’t lost interest in The Wire during the re-run of series 2 I probably would have had a few more candidates for the role. With all this testosterone, sprinkle another strong female to help Criminals Minds’ JJ keep the guys in check and that role I would give to Law and Order: SUV's Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay). She’s a calming and cool influence who knows when it’s the right time to kick ass. She thinks before she beats down a suspect. Et Voilà Police Pie!

Reserve:  Detective Jane Timoney (Maria Bello) and Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren), from Prime Suspect USA & UK. Andy McNally (Melissa Peregrym) from Rookie Blue.

Geek Squad:On the red computer we have the sassy Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) of Criminal Minds and on the blue computer we have the serious Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) of 24. A total clash of personalities but would be a cool comedy double act who would save the world from bad guys with their 'Big Brother is watching' computer programmes.

Reserve: Eric Beale (Barrett Foa) from NCIS: Los Angeles.

Forensic Team: Dr Temperance ‘Bones’ Brennan (Emily Deschanel) locking horns with Body of Proof’s Megan Hunt. While Dr Harry Cunningham (Tom Ward), and Dr Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox) from Silent Witness quietly carry on dissecting dead bodies in the lab.

Reserve: Medical examiner Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie) from Law and Order: Special Victims Unit

Investigator/ consultants: The Mentalist's Patrick Jayne (Simon Baker)Jayne for his special powers and quick wit and The Good Wife’s Kalinda Sharma (Archie Panjabi) to break a few rules to find out the facts.

Anti-Terrorist Squad: No contest it as to be Jack and Jackie ‘Carrie Mathison’ Baber.

A name: What is it with American police departments and their abbreviations – FBI, CBI, SVU, NCIS, CSI, BAU, NYPD, and LAPD etc.  We don’t have this issue here in Britain, we just have the police! So DJPD (Darlene Jovi’s Police Department) will do.

No doubt I have probably missed out a few obvious ones....BBC's Sherlock Holmes for one, maybe be I should put him under investigators and consultants. 

Of course if my favourite cops were was based on looks alone (shallow I know) then it would be a hell of a lot easier - Théo Vachewski  (Nicolas Duvauchelle) from Braquo. No contest!!

Now what about a Lawyers Dream Team or maybe a Criminal 'Nightmare' Team.  Hmmmm... 

Euro 2012 Dream Team...in my option

Congratulations Spain!

What am I going to do now? Well there is Wimbledon for another week and only 26 days until the Olympics starts and after that it’s the start of the new football season (Note to Aston Villa must do better).

Yes I love football. Yes I am a Tomboy. Oui Monsieur X, I do look like a boy and No I’m not gay, however I know the offsite rule, can’t explain it but I know when to shout ‘OFFSIDE!’ when I see it. As much as I love the beautiful game, watching 22 men running around in shorts it’s hard not to notice the gorgeous ones.

FYI – I think Italy is the most consistent team since World Cup in 1990– a gorgeous team every tournament, but I think France was just as hot this tournament.

So here is my Dream Team – ‘Not as hot as Cantona but…United’.

Goalkeeper

Iker Casillas

Defenders

 

Olof Mellberg                                             Gerard Piqué

Mathieu Debuchy                                      Leonardo Bonucci

Midfielders

Cesc Fàbregas                                               Migual Veloso

Federico Balzaretti                                      Yohan Cabaye                            

Strikers

 

Karim Benzema                                                 Olivier Giroud

Ah oui another French theme with a touch of the Mediterranean. I struggled to put any English players in my team, no one easy on the eye since Jamie Redknapp and yes I am the only woman in the world who doesn’t find David Beckham attractive.