According to earlier reports, Emmy nominee Jessica Sharzer ("American Horror Story") will write the script, Australian director Wayne Blair ("The Sapphires") will helm, Hamilton's Andy Blankenbuehler will choreograph and Grammy nominee Adam Anders and Peer Astrom ("Glee") will compose the music.
As in the film starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, ABC's "Dirty Dancing" will follow Baby (Breslin) on her family vacation in the Catskills. There, she falls in with the crowd of dance instructors, sparking her love of dance and a passionate romance. Messing is tapped to play Marjorie Houseman, a stereotypical 1960's housewife, who is using the summer to rekindle her marriage.
Messing, seen on Broadway in the 2014 staging of Outside Mullingar, currently stars in the TV series "The Mysteries of Laura."
The three-hour event from Lionsgate TV – which will be filmed, not aired live – will be produced by Allison Shearmur Productions ("The Hunger Games") and Eleanor Bergstein, who wrote the screenplay for the original movie. Stephen Altman is slated as producing designer. A broadcast date for "Dirty Dancing" has not yet been announced.