As reported by Deadline, ABC has cast Debra Messing as Marjorie Houseman (better known as “the mom”) in its three-hour remake of Dirty Dancing. It’s a little reductive to refer to the character simply as “the mom,” but she really doesn’t do a whole lot in the original other than ask if there are still starving children in Europe, play golf with her husband, and be totally cool about the whole thing when Johnny Castle does his dirty dancing routine at the end with her daughter. The role of the mom was played by Kelly Bishop in the original, except for about two seconds in the beginning when it’s clearly a different person sitting next to Jerry Orbach in the car. (There’s your Dirty Dancing trivia fact for the day!)
Abigail Breslin will be playing Baby, but none of the other roles have been cast yet. Obviously, it’ll be hard to find someone who can live up to Patrick Swayze’s work as Johnny in the original, but that movie is filled with performances that will be tough to beat. How about Charles Coles as the lovable Tito Suarez? Or Max Cantor as the Ayn Rand-reading slimeball Robbie? And who could forget Wayne Knight as the guy Wayne Knight played? What a wonderful summer that was.