My Review of the Stage Musical -- Romance

This post is the third in a series, following:

1) My Review of the Stage Musical -- General

2) My Review of the Stage Musical -- Race

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In this post I will write about a series of romantic relationships, in which the movie and stage musical differ.

1) Billy Kostecki and Elizabeth

2) Jake and Marjorie Houseman

3) Neil Kellerman and Baby Houseman

4) Johnny Castle and Baby Houseman

Other relationships -- involving Lisa Houseman, Penny Johnson, Robbie Gould, Lisa Houseman and Vivian Pressman -- are essentially similar in the movie and musical.

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Billy Kostecki and Elizabeth

In my previous article about the musical's race aspect, I pointed out that Billy frequently sings with a Negro female co-worker. I perceived that he looks at her longingly, but I did not notice his saying anything romantic to her. According to the musical's program, the character is called Elizabeth.

In an earlier post titled The Resort Hotel's Employees, I reported -- based on Eleanor Bergstein's commentary in a DVD -- that the an early draft of the movie's story was supposed to include a scene showing that Negroes were allowed to use the resort's swimming pool along with Caucasians.

When the producers were selecting a resort as a location for the movie, they looked for a resort with a swimming pool, because the movie was supposed to show that the swimming pool was racially integrated. The author Eleanor Bergstein in her running commentary mentioned that the Jewish-owned resorts racially integrated their swimming pools before the other resorts did so, so apparently her original script included a reference to that fact.

However, the producers could not find an available resort with a swimming pool (we do see guests swimming in a lake). Therefore none of the movie’s dialogue refers to the racial integration of the swimming pool, although the dialogue refers several times to the Civil Rights movement that was developing in the South in the early 1960s. We can suppose that the African-Americans in the planned swimming-pool scene would have been the orchestra members, who were idle during the days.

Based on the stage musical, I now speculate further that the swimming pool scene was supposed to introduce a subplot about a romantic relationship between Caucasian Billy and Negro Elizabeth.

(In 1963 the polite words were Caucasian and Negro, and so I use them here.)

If there was some relationship between Billy and Elizabeth, then perhaps Elizabeth was involved somehow in Billy helping Penny getting an abortion. Below is my list of speculations.

* Elizabeth told Billy about the abortionist in New Paltz.

* Elizabeth herself or a close relative or friend had had an abortion.

* Elizabeth remarked that Negroes were disadvantaged in getting legal abortions.

* Elizabeth helped cover for Billy or Penny while they were gone from work for an entire day.

The Billy-Elizabeth subplot was eliminated, however, as clutter around the time that the producers failed to find a resort with a swimming pool.

Years later, when Bergstein had the opportunity to retell her story as a musical, she restored Elizabeth into the story. Elizabeth sings with Billy, and he seems to be attracted to her, but their relationship is not elaborated further in the musical.

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Jake and Marjorie Houseman

Marjorie Houseman is much more prominent in the musical than in the movie.

They have a long conversation while they are playing golf. Unfortunately, I did not grasp that conversation's essence. I perceived that there was some tension between them. They seemed to be making biting remarks at each other.

(I did not take notes or record sound while I was watching the musical. I do not have access to the musical's script. Although the musical's sound system was superb, my hearing is becoming worse, and I could not understand every word. My account of the dialogue is based only on my memory and might be mistaken in some details.)

My perception might be based on the ABC original movie, in which they are approaching a divorce.

After Penny recovers from her abortion in the musical, she is so grateful to the entire Houseman family that she takes the initiative to give private dance lessons to Marjorie. During such a lesson, Penny mentions that Jake had treated her after her an abortion. Penny assumes that Marjorie knew about this, but Marjorie knew nothing until Penny mentioned it.

Marjorie is angry that Jake has kept this secret from her, and so she goes and confronts Jake about it.

Afterwards Marjorie confronts Baby. This scene in the musical is similar to a scene that was filmed for the movie but was deleted (8:17 to 9:02 in the following video).

In both the movie and the musical, Marjorie insinuates that Baby's actions have been wrecking the Houseman family. This insinuation makes much more sense when we understand that Marjorie fears that her marriage might be breaking apart.

Since all the marriage problems have been removed from the movie, Marjorie's insinuation is puzzling. How exactly has Baby been "wrecking everyone else's lives"? As far as the movie audience can see, Baby has only disappointed her father by lying to him about the borrowed money. Even in regard to Jake, Baby has not wrecked anything.

In the musical, however, Baby has caused a serious argument between Marjorie and Baby, because Penny unwittingly revealed to Marjorie the secret of Jake's involvement in the abortion. Since Marjorie and Jake have been having marriage problems, this revelation might be the straw that breaks the camel's back of the marriage. In that regard, Baby might have wrecked her parents' marriage.

The scene deleted from the movie was a superb, and it was acted superbly by the actress Kelly Bishop, who played the character Marjorie. Since the marriage problems had been eliminated from the movie, however, Marjorie's insinuation that Baby was wrecking everyone else's lives no longer made sense. That might be why this superb scene was deleted.

The marriage trouble between Jake and Marjorie was removed from the movie but later was restored to the stage musical and to the ABC original movie.

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Neil Kellerman and Baby Houseman

During last September and October I wrote a series of articles called Baby Houseman's Inner Conflict about Femininity. In that series' sixth part, I re-evaluated the relationship between Baby and Neil:

In the first part of Dirty Dancing, the relationship between Baby Houseman and Neil Kellerman is friendly, even affectionate.

In the movie's last part, Neil becomes a rather negative character. Therefore, people who have watched the entire movie develop a false memory that he was a negative character in the first part too. People persist in this mistake even as they watch the movie many times.

Early in the movie, Baby and Neil dance and chat together in the ballroom. A couple days ago, I re-watched that scene three times, looking for indications that Baby felt uncomfortable with Neil. I was surprised to find that she obviously is enjoying her time with him in the ballroom. This realization has caused me to reconsider Baby's and Neil's relationship.

Now I recognize that Baby was using Neil as her practice boyfriend, also known as a starter boyfriend, without his knowing his status.

[....]

Baby decided to use Neil as a practice boyfriend because she is not sure how to be feminine naturally. She wants to see how an interested man talks and acts with her, and she wants to experiment with her responses. For her, this is fun, and she is happy to remain in an elementary flirting stage for a long time.

She strings Neil along slowly. As the week passes, she gradually allows him more freedom to kiss and embrace her. Eventually she even allows him to touch a breast briefly through her clothes during a night's final embrace.

Baby likes Neil as a friend. He has many admirable qualities. After Neil and Johnny argue about the pachanga dance, she advises Johnny to discuss the issue with Neil again. She knows that Neil is a reasonable and accommodating person.

Baby thinks that Neil learned useful lessons about female-male interactions from herself too. She expects that he eventually will become a good husband for some other woman.

That interpretation of mine has been confirmed by my watching the stage musical. In particular, the musical includes an important conversation among Baby, Neil and Johnny in the scene right after the "Love Is Strange" dance. Neil enters the dance room and begins talking about the talent show, the pechanga, and so forth.

During this conversation, they talk about politics. Baby admires Neil for his political activism, for his intention to travel to Mississippi to help promote civil rights for Negroes. Johnny scoffs, saying that he himself never has voted even once in his life. Baby is appalled by Johnny's lack of even interest.

Then, however, Neil reveals that he will not travel to Mississippi after all, because he as a manager should not be gone from the hotel for a couple of weeks. Now Baby is somewhat disappointed with Neil for subordinating his political activism to his professional career.

This conversation is important in the story, because it gives Baby a reason to shift her romantic affection from Neil completely to Johnny. Although Johnny is not interested in politics, Neil's interest is more talk than action.

In general, I perceived throughout the musical scattered indications that Baby was affectionate and respectful toward Neil. These indications are related to the scattered mentions that Neil intends to travel to Mississippi.

In contrast, the movie mentions Neil's intention only once, when Neil and Baby are dancing in the ballroom during her first night at the resort. In that single context, the mention seems to be merely an empty boast to impress idealistic Baby.

The musical's continuing mentions of Neil's intended Mississippi trip support Baby's affection and admiration toward Neil during the story. Her disappointment in him occurs near the story's end and occurs suddenly.

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Johnny Castle and Baby Houseman

In the stage musical that I saw, Baby dances more poorly and improves more slowly than in the movie.

The musical's program reports that the actress, Kaleigh Courts, has attended the Houston Ballet Academy and has performed as a member of the Houston Ballet, so the actress can dance superbly. She purposely dances poorly in the musical.

She continues to dance poorly through the "Hungry Eyes" and  "Hey, Baby" scenes. Only when she accomplishes the lift move in the lake does she seem to show improvement. Her dancing at the Sheldrake is likewise worse in the musical than in the movie. Her dancing during and after the "Love Is Strange" scene is about the same in the musical as in the movie.

Johnny's apparent affection for Baby corresponds to her dancing skill. In other words, his affection develops slower in the musical than in the movie. I didn't notice this difference in any dialogue. Rather, his coolness -- his iciness -- toward her is indicated by his body movements and voice tone.

Maybe other actors playing Johnny and Baby in other companies play their relationship differently. Maybe other actresses playing Baby dance better and maybe other actors playing Johnny speak more warmly. For the purpose of my article here, I must assume that the performance that I happened to see is the Baby-Johnny relationship that the stage musical is supposed to portray.

In the musical, the relationship develops more slowly, and so their decision to becomes sexual is more sudden and seems to be prompted by their mutual experience of seeing Penny in mortal danger after her abortion.

In the movie, they became gradually more affectionate while they are practicing for their Sheldrake performance. In the musical, they become suddenly more affection after they have become sexual, which they have done because they were upset about Penny.

Even after Baby has become sexual with Johnny, she still feels affectionate towards Neil. Only after Neil reveals that he will not travel to Mississippi after all, does Baby shift all her romantic attention to Johnny.

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I think that the musical's portrayal of the relationship among Baby, Neil and Johnny is closer to Bergstein's original concept than the movie is.

In the movie, Neil seems to be merely a tiresome creep, and so it is obvious that Baby should disdain him and prefer the exciting artist Johnny. Furthermore, the movie's Jewish subtext suggests that Baby feels pressured by her family to marry a Jewish man, like Neil.

In the musical, Baby continually admires Neil because of his political activism, which is symbolized continually by his intention to travel to Mississippi. In contrast, Baby is appalled that Johnny is so politically uninterested that he has never even voted. Therefore, Baby's dilemma about whether to select Neil or Johnny as her ultimate romantic interest is more conflicted. Her dilemma is resolved only when Neil reveals that he will not travel to Mississippi after all.

The removal of most of the racial aspect from the movie prevented the movie audience from understanding why Baby might admire Neil. The movie audience perceived Neil to be merely a tiresome creep.

The character Neil was played brilliantly as a tiresome creep by the actor Lonny Price, who furthermore is a rather short man. Perhaps the character Neil turned out to be more despised by the movie audience than Bergstein intended because of the decision to cast Price in the role and because of Price's brilliant performance of the role.

If my speculation that the musical's portrayal of the Baby-Neil-Johnny triangle is closer than the movie to Bergstein's original concept, then I judge her original concept to be the better story. In the musical, Baby is more conflicted about whether she should pursue a romantic relationship with a man like Neil or a man like Johnny.

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Most people love the movie Dirty Dancing so much that they reject reflexively other presentations of the story. This rejection happened especially in regard to the ABC original movie. (I have published two posts praising the ABC version and intend to publish two more.)

However, the movie is somewhat different from Bergstein's original story. The movie was addressed to an audience in the 1980s and had to be kept to a standard length and had to kept rather simple. Therefore, much of Bergstein's story was not included in the movie.

The other presentations -- the stage musical and the ABC original movie -- were for audiences in the 21st century. Those audiences are already very familiar with the movie's story and they live in a more multi-ethnic society. The story can be told more briskly, making time for the racial aspect and the Housemans' marriage trouble to be restored into Bergstein's story. The later presentations are closer than the movie to Bergstein's original concept of the story.

The stage musical has provided new insights into the roles of Billy, Jake, Marjorie, Neil and Johnny -- and therefore into the role of Baby.

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This series will continue:

4) My Review of the Stage Musical -- Comparison of Songs