My Review of the Stage Musical -- Race

This post is the second in a series, following My Review of the Stage Musical -- General.

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I did not take notes or record sound when I watched the stage musical three days ago. My following account is based only on my memory. Some details might be mistaken.

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The biggest difference between the Dirty Dancing movie and stage musical is the racial aspect, which is much more explicit and important in the musical.

Until Baby Houseman borrows the $250 from her father, the musical's dialogue is taken from the movie. Some of the movie's dialogue is missing from the musical, but the only dialogue added into the musical are a few -- maybe three -- remarks related to the Civil Rights Movement. In particular, the March on Washington -- where Martin Luther King would give his "I Have a Dream" speech -- is mentioned.

After Baby borrows the $250, there is an entire scene that is not in the movie. People are sitting around a campfire and singing a series of folk songs that includes "We Shall Overcome". Right after the singing, Baby gives Penny the $250.

Scattered throughout the musical are several remarks about Neil Kellerman's intention to travel to Mississippi with a couple of the hotel's Negro employees to participate in a "Freedom Ride" or some such activity.

Right after the "Love Is Strange" dance, when Neil comes into the dance room to talk with Johnny Castle about the talent show, the musical includes dialogue that is not in the movie. Baby expresses approval of Neil's political activism, but Johnny scoffs, remarking that he himself, Johnny, never has voted even one time in his entire life.

Then Neil reveals that he probably will not travel to Mississippi after all. He wants to go, but he realizes now that, as a manager, he should not be away from his work for a couple of weeks. His grandfather Max would disapprove of such a long absence.

Another important element of the musical's racial aspect is that Billy Kostecki seems to be romantically interested in a Negro woman who works at the hotel. (According to the program, her name is Elizabeth.) He and she sing together frequently during the musical. He never says anything romantic to her, but I perceived that he gazed at her longingly while she was sitting with another Caucasian male co-worker.

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

Elizabeth's Negro race is an essential part of her role. She sings in a Negro manner. Whenever I see Elizabeth in video clips of the musical, she always is a Negro.

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I speculate that Bergstein had included many or all of those race-related elements in her screenplay for the movie. She has remarked that in her original story the Houseman family traveled to the Catskills in order to prevent Baby from attending the March on Washington. The Houseman parents were afraid that the March might be dangerous for Baby because of possible violence.

In the movie, the only mentions of the Civil Rights Movement are 1) the "police dogs used in Birmingham" and 2) Neil's stated intention to participate in a "Freedom Ride". (Both those mentions are included in the musical.)

I speculate that the rest of the race-related elements were removed from Bergstein's story during the movie's production but have been restored into the musical.

I speculate further that the main reason for removing those elements was that they would have added too much length and clutter to the movie. The movie's politics was reduced essentially to only the abortion issue. Other political issues -- the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War -- were merely mentioned.

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A resort hotel in the Catskill Mountains in 1963 was not a good setting for stories about racial relations. The local population of that northern, rural, mountainous region was well more than 90% Caucasian. (In 1963 the US population was about 88% Caucasian.)

The hotel's guests were overwhelmingly Jewish. The hotel's employees were overwhelmingly 1) residents of the nearby rural, mountain towns, or 2) college students on summer breaks. Only a tiny number of Negroes or Hispanics might be present at the hotel as employees.

The movie depicts the hotel's workforce as including a lot of Negroes and Hispanics. In fact, those minorities (aside from the Cuban-immigrant orchestra) were just a few specks in such a hotel's overwhelmingly Caucasian workforce.

In such a workforce, only a few oddballs would be fans of Negro rhythm-and-blues music. When the hotel workers had a party, they played mostly recordings of Caucasian singers. They did not do "dirty dancing" -- rather, they danced the twist.

The 1963 movie Palm Springs Weekend shows a resort hotel where no Negros were seen, where no Negro music was heard and where no Negro dancing was danced. That was the social reality in 1963.

So, subplots about Negroes could be -- and were -- removed from the movie Dirty Dancing in order to keep the movie a standard length.

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The stage musical adds the elaborated subplot about Neil's plan to travel to Mississippi, adds some relationship between Billy and a Negro female co-worker, adds a campfire gathering where "We Shall Overcome" is sung, and adds Negroes to the hotel's workforce.

Because the entire audience of the stage musical already knows the story well, the musical retells the movie's story briskly, making time for those additions.

I like those additions to the musical, for several reasons.

* They enrich our understanding of Bergstein's original concept of her story.

* They set the story into the circumstances of the Civil Rights Movement.

*  They introduce some folk music into the story.

* They broaden the current and future audience for the story.

On the other hand, I think that the decision to minimize the racial aspect of the movie was wise. The movie intended to tell its story in a realistic manner and to focus on the abortion issue. The movie does have a racial aspect, but not enough to lengthen and clutter the movie.

A stage musical differs as a genre from a realistic movie. A musical's characters sing and dance. A musical's presentation includes fantasy and whimsy. A musical's major goal is continual entertainment.

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This series of posts will continue:

3) My Review of the Stage Musical -- Romance

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