Film Experience of a Lifetime

As my last post was rather epic (!), this one is a little 'un, I promise!
It was my birthday last week, and as a gift one of my best friends got us tickets to see 'Dirty Dancing' the stage show at the Bristol Hippodrome last night - and it was FANTASTIC!

For many women (pretty much all of us, I'd imagine!) and anyone from a certain era of growing up, 'Dirty Dancing' is THE film: good story; great performances; hot moves.  We know the script backwards, sing to all the songs and wish we were Baby with a little dancing and a lot of Johnny in ours lives - let's add a quick communal RIP for Patrick Swayze here.

The stage show was all that and more: audience participation with singing, clapping and cheering throughout (plus a standing/dancing ovation at the end!); a few extra songs; and some scenes that never made it into the film but offer fresh and deeper insight into the characterisation.  Plus, the bloke playing Johnny was well fit...! (Sorry: it had to be said!).  If you get a chance, see this show - it won't replace the film in your affections, but it will allow you to join in and share your love for it with everyone else who loves it too.

I'll leave you with this quote, as it sums up what 'Dirty Dancing' is to many of us, both when we first watched it and now as we reflect on it, and hope that one day I too can create a character or write a story that lives on in the audience's mind:

"The function of the artist is to make people like life better than they have before." ~ Kurt Vonnegut