"Nobody puts Baby in a corner."
Maybe not, but ABC is putting Frances "Baby" Houseman and Johnny Castle back on the small screen in a surprisingly fresh Dirty Dancing adaptation that retells their iconic romance, but also fleshes out some of our favorite characters from the box office smash of 30 years ago.
The three-hour filmed musical airs at 7 p.m. Wednesday on ABC and features an all-star cast and all the familiar songs, plus some new musical numbers for good measure.
As Baby and Johnny, Abigail Breslin and Colt Prattes won't make you forget Jennifer Grey and the late Patrick Swayze, but you'll see their story through fresh eyes.
Dancer and acting newbie Prattes, for example, plays Johnny with more anger, more brooding than Swayze. He's still a hunk, however, and the show finds time for him to go shirtless.
Breslin, who won our hearts in Little Miss Sunshine and most recently starred in Fox's Scream Queens, is a plumper, more studious, geekier version of Baby, but still has us cheering her spunk and maturation.
The adaptation also makes Baby a legal-aged 18 years old because, well, there are some bedroom scenes between our budding lovers. They're rather chaste scenes, but bedroom scenes nonetheless.
It's still 1963 in the remake and the setting is still Kellerman's idyllic resort in the Catskill Mountains. Trivia: The adaptation was filmed in western North Carolina with the High Hampton Inn in Cashiers serving as Kellerman's.
The plot remains fairly faithful to the original, with a few innocuous tweaks to bring it to a more modern audience.
For example, there's some subtle commentary on changing race relations when Baby's older sister Lisa (Modern Family's Sarah Hyland) befriends a young black musician (J. Quinton Johnson) at the resort.
Hyland also brings a good deal more sympathy and less ditziness to the role that I believe audiences will appreciate.
And there's more marital drama revealed between Baby's parents, Dr. Jake and Marjorie Houseman. The reboot has Bruce Greenwood taking the Jerry Orbach role and Debra Messing that of Kelly Bishop. Both get to sing.
Veterans Tony Roberts and Billy Dee Williams play resort owner Max Kellerman and band leader Tito Suarez.
Katey Sagal gives an especially sultry, but also sad, performance as middle-aged "bungalow bunny" Vivian Pressman, but she also turns in one of the best song performances of the film with "Fever."
Finally, a perfectly cast Nicole Scherzinger takes on the Cynthia Rhodes role as Penny Johnson, Johnny's dance partner who has the misfortune of getting pregnant by womanizing waiter and total cad Robbie Gould (Shane Harper).
Viewers will find themselves wanting to sing along with modernized versions of their favorite Dirty Dancing songs, including "Love Man," "Do You Love Me," "Hungry Eyes," "She's Like the Wind," and the rousing finale, "Time of My Life," sung by Breslin and Prattes.
Added bonus: After all is said and done, there's an extra scene that brings us up to date on what happened to Baby and Johnny after that magical summer. Did they run off together? Did they find happiness with others? I won't spoil it.
TV revivals and remakes seem to be all the rage these days, but they've had varying degrees of success. Some were pleasantly surprising such as The Sound of Music Live!, The Wiz Live! and Grease Live! Others, such as Peter Pan Live!, Hairspray Live! and The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again were disappointing.
Fans of the original Dirty Dancing needn't worry. Enjoy the retelling and learning more about the ancillary characters.
And feel free to cheer when Johnny says, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner," then leads her out onto the dance floor to attempt that tricky climatic lift.
• 13 Reasons Why. The popular Netflix series that deals with the aftermath of a teenager's suicide will return with a 13-episode second season in 2018. Some mental health experts have expressed concern that the series glorifies suicide and is a danger to vulnerable young people.
In response, Netflix has added a warning to the beginning of each episode.
• The Putin Interviews. Oscar-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone is set for a four-hour documentary featuring interviews with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The film airs on four consecutive nights on Showtime beginning June 12.
"If Vladimir Putin is indeed the great enemy of the United States, then at least we should try to understand him," Stone said in an announcement.
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Style on 05/23/2017