Spaghetti arms!
I've been taking a lot of heat for this, but last night, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Dirty Dancing on the big screen, in celebration of the movie's 20th anniversary. And, really, if I weren' t in D.C. tonight drinking wine with a former colleague, I'd have gone again tonight (and, if I could've worked it out, I really would've gone to the free drive-in event last week at the Tribeca Film Festival).
I am a huge fan of the movie; I've watched the E! True Hollywood Story and whatnot more times than is probably healthy; I've watched the extras on the two-DVD set that the Smelmooo gave me; I keep it on every time I stumble across it when I'm channel-surfing. But I haven't watched the whole movie from start-to-finish in probably 10 years, and I was surprised yesterday by how funny certain characters (Baby's mom, as played by Kelly Bishop; the smarmy Neil Kellerman, played by Lonny Price, who seems not to have acted in a decade), and how good my beloved Jerry Orbach was in this role (particularly juxtaposed with Swayze's not-so-great acting -- that scene on the log where he explains how he became a dancer is still totally cringe-inducing -- but on his own merit, Orbach really delivered a nice, nuanced performance here). It was fun to be part of a crowd that all giggled in anticipation of, "I carried a watermelon?!" and who all whooped and cheered at, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner!"
There was a 20-minute behind-the-scenes special before the actual movie aired, which was okay but not great -- the E! True Hollywood Story is much better -- but it did spend a lot of time talking about the stage version of the movie, which seems to track the film script almost exactly, as far as I can tell. I sort of think that I'd be disappointed, though; I just can't imagine that it could live up to the movie (on a somewhat related note, I have no idea how they've made Legally Blonde a musical, and I wonder how long that one will last). And, really, there's only one Baby, and now that she has her fancy nose, she's disappeared, and I don't think the magic can be recreated.
Save the date now for the 30th anniversary! Who's in for May 2017?
I am a huge fan of the movie; I've watched the E! True Hollywood Story and whatnot more times than is probably healthy; I've watched the extras on the two-DVD set that the Smelmooo gave me; I keep it on every time I stumble across it when I'm channel-surfing. But I haven't watched the whole movie from start-to-finish in probably 10 years, and I was surprised yesterday by how funny certain characters (Baby's mom, as played by Kelly Bishop; the smarmy Neil Kellerman, played by Lonny Price, who seems not to have acted in a decade), and how good my beloved Jerry Orbach was in this role (particularly juxtaposed with Swayze's not-so-great acting -- that scene on the log where he explains how he became a dancer is still totally cringe-inducing -- but on his own merit, Orbach really delivered a nice, nuanced performance here). It was fun to be part of a crowd that all giggled in anticipation of, "I carried a watermelon?!" and who all whooped and cheered at, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner!"
There was a 20-minute behind-the-scenes special before the actual movie aired, which was okay but not great -- the E! True Hollywood Story is much better -- but it did spend a lot of time talking about the stage version of the movie, which seems to track the film script almost exactly, as far as I can tell. I sort of think that I'd be disappointed, though; I just can't imagine that it could live up to the movie (on a somewhat related note, I have no idea how they've made Legally Blonde a musical, and I wonder how long that one will last). And, really, there's only one Baby, and now that she has her fancy nose, she's disappeared, and I don't think the magic can be recreated.
Save the date now for the 30th anniversary! Who's in for May 2017?
3 Comments:
Totally.
-Sharico
P.S. Go back to your playpen. BABY.
By
Anonymous, at 1:59 PM
I'm there!:)
-Leslie
By
Anonymous, at 7:44 PM
ok, i know i'm a little late but i just read this and felt the need to tell you that I went to the Dirty Dancing Concert Tour the summer DD came out!!!! It rocked! hahaha
--MS
By
Anonymous, at 9:24 PM
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