Another film is looking to make its way to the boards of Broadway and its producers are hoping you’ll have the time of your life at the show.
Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story Onstage, based on the popular 1987 romance, is rumored to be in preparations to take over the Neil Simon Theater for a run next fall. Ironically, the venue is currently occupied by another stage adaptation of a film, Hairspray.
Although there has been no formal announcement, Variety reports that a Broadway run for the show seems to be inevitability following successful runs in Chicago, Hamburg, London and Toronto. The current Chicago production features Amanda Leigh Cobb and Josef Brown in the Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze roles.
Dirty Dancing’s original screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein has also penned the book for the stage show, so presumably there haven’t been too many changes to the story.
I was never much of a fan of the film, I’ll have to admit. I found the film more melodrama than engaging drama. I was also irked by the use of a the obviously modern sounding “The Time Of My Life” in the film’s finale after all the perfect 1960s period music that had been used in every other scene up to that point. It was a choice that broke what ever connection I had left with the picture. A quick look at the songlist on the show’s website shows that it is still in the show. I’m sure that will please Dirty Dancing’s fans.
