"Now I've Had the Time of My Life...No I Never Felt Like This Before...Yes I Swear It's the Truth..." Dirty Dancing the Musical

"You're the one thing...I can't get enough of...So I tell you something....This could be LOVE"

Hell yes, it's love. The musical theatre and I have an affair so strong that love doesn't begin to describe it :)

Wow, folks, I know I'm behind. So I'm going to try and catch up a week tonight. So, we're rewinding time to my first Sunday here...2 weeks ago this upcoming Sunday.

Our first sponsored activity through University of Dreams was that Sunday, and we got to see "Dirty Dancing:The Musical" at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood.

The day started out just peachy....as the night before was night 2 of my suitemate Nadia's 21st bday weekend, so the pukey sheets in the trashcan when I woke up the next morning was so pleasant to smell and get ready around.

My roommate Haily and our other suitemate Casey decided they didn't have the energy to get ready, but Nadia was determined to get on the bus to see this play.

So we get all dressed up to go to the theatre and get on the bus and on our way. And immediately Nadia regrets this decision 100%. For incredibly beyond hungover (possibly still drunk) and one large, swaying charter bus do not mix. Needless to say she went running to the bathroom at the back of the bus halfway there and did not come back until we were exiting the bus in Hollywood.

But after that, things were okay. We were there super early, so we got to walk up and down the Walk of Fame, which was pretty cool for a lot of people. It was cool for me too, but the theatre is litearlly right across the street from my office building so all the stars in the area we could cover before we had to be back to take our seats are ones I had already seen multiple times. Plus I didn't think we'd be walking so I wore uncomfortable heels and let's just say my feet did not appreciate the little stroll.

So anyway, we head back to the theatre so we can get out seats for the show. The theatre was old, you could tell, and very pretty. But, if you ask me, it had absolutely nothing on The Fox or The Detroit Opera House back home. There were carvings in the ceilings and magnificant golden shining statues, but literally, I was not nearly as awed as I am when I go to Detroit for a show. It actually surprised me how unenchanted I was with the place. Like I said, it's still very pretty, but I guess maybe I was expecting more and didn't realize that what we have back home actually is like, really really really nice.

So Nadia and I find our seats along with all the other Dreamers. They told us we were all in one big area so it didn't matter where we sat as long as we sat in the specified section, but that turned out to be one big lie because we tried to sit with some of my friends (Alyssa, Talia, Marielle, Rachel) but the usher kicked us out and back to our seats claiming other people had the tickets to the seats we were in. Unfortunately we were further back in the theatre then, but it ended up working out for the best. Because it always ends up when I have good seats that I get stuck behind the person with the big tall hat or the really unnaturally long necked person...and we ended up having absolutely no one sitting in the two seats in the row in front of us. Therefore, my view was unobstructed and I could see the whole entire play clearly without straining to see around something. It was amazing.

So the first half of the play starts and it's great...the dancing took my breath away...I so wish I could dance like that. The woman who played Baby was fabulous...I couldn't even distinguish too much of a difference between her and the movie's Baby. It was hard at first to adapt to the guy playing Johnny...he had a bit of an accent that he hid well but came out every now and then...and basically you're just expecting Patrick Swayze and obviously that's not what you're gonna get. Eventually I settled into the comfort of him as Johnny but it took awhile. The first half was pretty much an exact following of the movie except for a few lines here or there.

In the same fashion as it was hard to get used to a new Johnny, it was weird when you can outline every scene in your head of the movie to use your imagination and get used to the stage scenery. Again, I eventually fell into it and stopped comparing and really enjoying it. The way they used the small space of the stage to their advantage was so good. And they had portions of the stage that they could raise and lower so it would give you the impression that they were walking up or down a long ways. And they had a rotating conveyer belt section so you felt like you were getting a bunch of different camera angles of what was going on at Kellermen's.

The more and more I let go of the movie in my head, the more and more enthralled I became in every moment of the play. If you thought Patrick and Jennifer had chemistry in the movie, the two that played their characters in the play would blow you away. I felt I almost believed their love story more than I believed the movie one. The guy who played Johnny portrayed just a hint more of insecurity than Patrick Swayze did, and I think it made more sense to go toward his build as a character. And he was just as smoking hot....yummy muscles!

The one small break of the play where I didn't feel completely into it was the scene where they're practicing lifts in the water. Obviously, they aren't going to plop a big blow up pool of water on stage so they had to get creative...and they really did as best as they could and it was really remarkable how hard it had to have been to choreograph it. They dropped a mesh-like screen down where the curtain would normally be, and projected sloshing water onto it. So you're seeing water, but you can still see the actor's through the mesh screen, just a little fuzzy as if you were looking at them in water.They obviously had them elevated on some sort of stunt mat because they were higher than they would have been on the stage floor. They'd do the lift, and she'd fall and make it look like she was diving in like in the movie, and they would disappear underneath some sort of slit in the curtain, obviously falling into the stunt mats, and then would reappear in like totally different places than they fell, as if they swam around each other. And Johnny would pop up and flip his hair and the water would move with his exact movements. So it was incredibly cheesy, because everyone knew what was going on and it was funny to see him flip his hair and there was no real water. And like I said, I give them total props for figuring out a way to keep that crucial scene and to have it timed to a T like that...but everyone was just laughing instead of realizing that this is supposed to be one of the more romantic scenes in the movie.

The first act ended with their first sex scene...when Baby goes back and proclaims "And most of all I'm afraid of walking out of this room and never feeling ever again the way I feel when I'm with you." Haha, I always feel embarressed for her when she says that, but watching the play I was like, 'you know what, you go girl! way to not leave any questions as to what you want!' Anyway, if you ask me, that scene in the play was even steamier than the one in the movie...and as the intermission lights came on I think everyone was fanning themselves. In fact, I happened to get a few...ahem..."choice" text messages from a certain someone across the theatre triggered by that damn scene...

The second act actually veered from the movie a lot. I mean, it kept the same exact story line, but the way it veered was that it added things. It added more context to the times and to Baby's passion for trying to save people and better the world and Johnny's outlook on life being that everyone needs to look out for themsleves because that's all he's ever known and how knowing her and being with her really truly changes his outlook on those things. It was really really good. You could really see in the play more than the movie that it wasn't just about the great sex, but it was about growing as people for each of them as well. Baby wasn't afraid to stand up for herself and be her own person anymore, and Johnny learned the virtue of looking out for others and selflessness.

The coolest scene in the show was, of course, the final one. The best part was when Johnny storms back into Kellerman's end of the year paegant. All of a sudden you hear a car engine really loud and then the doors in the back of the theatre literally right behind me (and we sat on the aisle seats!) flung open and bright headlights shone and Johnny comes charging down the aisle in his leather jacket and runs up and jumps onto the stage. Everyone in theatre cheered when they realized he was running down the aisles so loud.

Then, of course, the famous line comes.... "Nobody puts Baby in the corner!" Cheers erupt from the entire theatre for so long, they have to wait to continue acting. It was so cool...everyone knew it was coming and everyone was just waiting for it. Then it happened and it was like, AHHHHHHH! Haha.

Then the dance scene? Of course, completely fabulous! Everyone ended on their feet and yes, the sap I am, I was in tears the entire last few minutes.

The lights came on and I had to pull myself together cause I felt like a crying idiot.

I just have such a strong feeling of connection to the stage and I feel like I'm in a completely different world watching it. I become the lead character and her story is my story. We make the journey together. And I so badly want to be able to do that for other people....being on stage would be so fabulous.

*Sigh*. Yes, I love the theatre so.

We went back to UCLA after that. Alex and I decided to go grab some dinner and ended up meeting up with a bunch of my new girl friends...I felt bad that he was the only guy but he seemed to be completely unfazed...he and I just talked the entire time with each other. Great conversation. :)

We all grabbed dessert, minus me and Alex because, for me, the place processed their ingredients in a place that processes wheat, and him because he said he didn't enjoy frozen yougurt...but I think he was just being nice so I didn't feel left out.

After we came back to my suite and just hung out and it was a great night in all. So much fun. So much smiling. :)

Okay. So I planned to catch up. But i have friends waiting for me to go out. So, sorry. Gonna have to try and catch up another time!

MUAH!