By Michele Markarian
Dirty Dancing by Eleanor Bergstein. Directed by Sarna Lapine. Presented by Amber Jacobsen, Networks Presentations LLC, Col Joye in Association with Lionsgate and Magic Hour Productions at the Boch Shubert Theatre Stage, 265 Tremont St, Boston, MA through June 17.
It would be hard to find anyone who hasn’t seen the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing”, starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, about a college-bound teenager who falls in love with a dance instructor at a family camp in the Catskills. The stage show is pretty faithful to the film, which gave all of us in attendance at the premiere of “Dirty Dancing” at the Boch Shubert Theatre Stage a healthy dose of familiar fun.
Baby (Kaleigh Courts) is on a family vacation with her family, the Housemans. They’re an innocent bunch – at eighteen, Baby is still a virgin. Her older sister, Lisa (Demitra Pace) is focused more on boys than a career, but Baby wants to save the world and join the Peace Corps after college. Luckily for her, there’s a whole world of undereducated and underemployed camp staff who could certainly use saving, in particular, a handsome young dance instructor named Johnny Castle (Aaron Patrick Craven). In his own words, “And the reason people treat me like nothing is because I am nothing”. Not entirely true; Johnny is not only very handsome, but he, along with his partner, Penny (Anais Blake) is an amazing dancer, which attracts the rhythmically challenged Baby. Penny is under the weather, having been knocked up by a callous young waiter named Robbie (Ryan Cupello). Not only does Baby give Penny the money for an illegal abortion, she agrees to step in for Penny, who is supposed to headline a dance show later that week with Johnny. Johnny reluctantly agrees to let Baby stand in for Penny, which leads to dance lessons, which leads to…okay, I don’t have to tell you.
The show takes place in 1963, and although I’ve never been to a camp in the Catskills, the atmosphere created by Lapine made me homesick for one, with its host of activities (…”a symposium on The Psychology of Insult Comics”) and dressing for dinner. And if Baby could learn to dance there, there’s hope for all of us, particularly with such a handsome and attentive instructor. Craven is a beautiful dancer with an iridescent smile. He and the luminescent Blake are well-matched; it is a pleasure to watch them move in tandem to Michele Lynch’s excellent choreography. Courts, as Baby, is a wonderful physical comedienne, whose expressions run the gamut – innocence, shock, discomfort and delight. Nickolaus Colon, as lovesick worker Billy Kostecki, does a gorgeous version of “In the Still of the Night” that will break your heart. Owen Russell, as Neil Kellerman, is not only funny but dulcet-voiced as well. Hannah Straney is memorable as the sex-starved Vivian Pressman. Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams’s set design reflects nicely the rusticity of the Catskills resort, aided dramatically by Ken Billington’s lighting design.
When Craven, as the deposed Johnny, enters the dance floor and says, “Nobody puts Baby in a corner” a happy roar of recognition arose from the audience. This is the stuff that great romance is made of, if only for a summer. For tickets and info, go to: http://www.bochcenter.org/buy/show-listing/dirty-dancing
