Time to dance! 'Dirty Dancing' is coming to Manila

"Dirty Dancing," the movie that struck a chord with millions of fans with its universal rich-girl-poor-guy love story and sexy choreography, is coming to the Cultural Center of the Philippines Main Theater stage. But if you think it's going to be the usual formal, stilted performance that happens at the formidable CCP, you're highly mistaken. For this show, everyone's invited to let it all out. "Let go!" Mila de Biaggi, who plays dance instructor Penny in the show, said in an interview after the "Dirty Dancing" press conference Friday afternoon.

"It's true, there's a lot of shows that you go and watch and the audience is very quiet. But in this show, you can scream, you can laugh," she shared, explaining that on the show's South African tour, the crowd did not hold back their reactions at all. For instance, de Biaggi shared, in the moment when the show's leading man Johnny Castle puts on a pair of pants over his boxers-clad physique, a panicked "Noooo!" can be heard from the audience. She also shared that one night, during the scene where they sing the Kellerman's Anthem, a woman sitting in the front row stood up and sang along with them, and then turned to the rest of the audience and asked everybody to stand and join in. "It's such fun for us to hear the response of the audience," de Biaggi shared. Well, it is only fitting for a show whose most famous song is "Time of My Life" to allow people to have the time of their lives while watching it—unbridled sighing, rabid cheering, and all. The story itself has room for all sorts of reactions. It is a coming-of-age romance, after all. Think Titanic, without the iceberg, and dance lessons instead of an intense nude sketching session. It is set in 1960s USA, and revolves around Frances "Baby" Houseman, a smart, free-spirited, but straight-laced girl who goes on holiday at the Kellerman's resort. There, she meets the resort's dance instructor, Johnny Castle, who introduces Baby to the raunchy world of dirty dancing, hip thrusts, grinds, crotch grabs and all. Of course, the two fall in love—but not without their own share of you-and-me-against-the-world type drama set to lots of high-octane dancing and music. Just because you haven't seen the movie-turned-stage-musical doesn't mean you're new to the whole "Dirty Dancing" craze either. In fact, you probably know more about it than you think. Its cult status has made it a common reference in pop culture. Ryan Gosling's character in "Crazy, Stupid, Love" takes a page right out of the Johnny Castle school of seduction when he lifts Emma Stone into the air for his "Big Move." And that annoying Black Eyed Peas song "The Time (Dirty Bit)" takes a cut from the movie's anthem. Spot-on adaptation of the film The producers say that the stage version is a spot-on adaptation of the film, but with a few extra scenes added into the mix, kind of like the deleted scenes in the DVD features. Aside from de Biaggi, the principal cast includes Bryony Whitfield as Baby, and Gareth Bailey in the role of Johnny Castle. Both stars share that they can't wait to bring the show to the Philippines. "We're so excited, we really are. We've had such an amazing response in South Africa, we were in South Africa for 5 months, in Cape Town and Johannesburg, and we played to full houses almost every single night. Somebody came back 17 times to see the show, so people are extremely excited about this," Whitfield shared at a post-press conference interview. "The dancing is wonderful, it's sexy and it's hot. And it links internationally. Internationally, people have seen this show, over 5 million people have seen it. So we can't wait to bring it to Asia," she shared. "It's been amazing to be able to see how audiences respond now all over the world from the UK, in Ireland, in South Africa, so it's gonna be very exciting now bringing it over to Asia," Bailey added. Filipinos in particular, said producer James Cundall, will make a good audience for this kind of show. "You're so musical, and you know musicals. You know your stuff in Manila, you're a very sophisticated audience," he said in a video. "You listen to the story, far more than an English audience does. And you're very welcoming and engaging for performers to work with." — KBK, GMA News "Dirty Dancing" will open at the CCP Main Theater on July 4 and will run for 22 shows. Tickets can be purchased at any Ticketworld outlet, or online through www.ticketworld.com.ph.