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.
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